Attending Jakarta Economic Forum 2024, Acting Governor Heru Encourages Jakarta to Become a Global City

Acting Jakarta Governor, Heru Budi Hartono, attended the Jakarta Economic Forum (JEF) 2024 held by Jakarta Representative of Bank Indonesia, at Park Hyatt Hotel, Central Jakarta, Tuesday (10/15).

Competitive global city

In the activity themed “Innovation to Enhance Jakarta’s Competitiveness as a Global City: Policy and Implementation”, Heru emphasized that the Jakarta will continue to move forward to become a competitive, inclusive, and sustainable global city.

"Change will not happen overnight, but with commitment, collaboration and innovation, we can ensure that Jakarta will continue to move forward to become a competitive, inclusive and sustainable global city," Heru said, as quoted from Jakarta Provincial Government's press release.

Acting Governor Launches Guidebook Towards Jakarta as a Global City

Jakarta Provincial Government in synergy with Bank Indonesia is holding the Jakarta Economic Forum 2024, in order to formulate strategic thinking as input for formulating policies that can strengthen Jakarta's position as a global city that is advanced, competitive, and sustainable in accordance with the Jakarta 2024 vision.

"Joint efforts from the central government, other local governments, communities, the private sector, and stakeholders are needed to implement the strategies," he added.

He continued, Jakarta's position in 2023 on the global stage is still ranked 74th out of 156 cities based on Kearney's Global City Index. However, Jakarta has the opportunity to rise to become a top 20 global city by considering progress in various sectors.

The progress that has been achieved as in economy sector, Jakarta's economic growth has been recorded as stable with an average of 5.2 percent per year and is a major contributor to the national economy over the past ten years. Furthermore, Jakarta has more than 2,000 startups and is ranked 21st in the world in the startup ecosystem in 2023, ranking second as the largest fintech center in Southeast Asia.

"Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) achievement is 7 billion USD in 2023, exports in the technology and creativity sector of 1.5 billion USD in 2022," he continued.

Then, progress in the development of mass transportation infrastructure has been carried out massively in the last 20 years, namely the Jakarta MRT with the 16 km Lebak Bulus-HI Roundabout line, the Jakarta LRT with the 5.8 km Velodrome-Kelapa Gading line, and Transjakarta as the largest BRT system in the world with 3,500 buses, 260 routes, and 1 million passengers/day.

 According to him, Jakarta also has human resources  that can compete at the global level. One of them is seen from the Human Development Index (HDI) reaching a value of 80.67 in 2022.

In the environmental sector, the Jakarta Provincial Government has committed to reducing carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2023; adding Green Open Space (RTH) to 19.8 percent of the total area; and reducing waste volume by 12 percent by 2022. In addition, Jakarta has actively established partnerships with other global cities.

At the same event, Head of the BI Jakarta Representative Office Arlyana Abubakar said that the JEF activity initiated in 2023 was a synergy between Bank Indonesia, the Jakarta Provincial Government, and the Indonesian Economists Association (ISEI) in Jakarta.

"This activity is a forum to discuss various strategic issues in Jakarta as input in the formulation and implementation of policies. This is intended to achieve inclusive and sustainable economic growth in Jakarta. The participants who attended today were also quite complete, not only academics and government elements, but also business actors and communities," he stated.