As the general manager of Le Meridien Jakarta, what is your point of view on the evolution of Jakarta's infrastructure? Do you believe that hosting the APEC 2013 will put Indonesia more in the spotlight?
Definitely. I believe that Jakarta and Indonesia– not only just because of the APEC – are already in the spotlight within the South East Asian region. Within the Indonesian economy, infrastructure remains one of the main challenge/issue at the moment. I do not think it is a secret if I say that Jakarta is still plenty of years behind compared to other cities at the moment. If you look at the roads, ports and airports, there still is quite a lot of work to do. So I think this is one of the main challenges the government has to face right now.
Could you please tell us what the government has been doing to improve the infrastructures of Indonesia? Are they performing well? And how do you also imagine Jakarta and Indonesia to be in terms of infrastructure 5 years down the road?
During the last 8 years, a lot of planning has been done. For example, the many new highways around the country, the new bridge to Sumatra, the extension of the port here in Jakarta, etc. So, the plans are all there but the sad thing is that from all the plans just around 15% have been carried out. Moreover, the real problem is that we are now moving towards the end of the current government by June next year, so a lot of projects will be on hold again. So is the government going into the correct direction? Yes, I would say. But are they going at the right speed? Clearly not.
Then, in terms of how I see Jakarta’s infrastructure in 5 years from now, the key aspect is the traffic congestion. Yes, the government has been working on this too, but the road infrastructure still leaves a lot of room for improvement. At the end of the day, addressing this problem will make life for business owners easier as capacity in itself is certainly not the problem.
'Managed by Starwood Hotels, Le Meridien Jakarta is a 396-room luxury hotel in Jakarta that caters to both recreational and business travelers.'
