A competitive Jakarta will attract investors. The positive impact is of course more jobs and the creation of a strong and resilient economy.
To achieve this, Jakarta needs to fix several things. One of them is licensing, which is an indicator of the Ease of Doing Business (EODB). This year, Indonesia ranks 73 out of 190 countries surveyed by the World Bank. In the survey, Jakarta and Surabaya were used as references, but more inclined to Jakarta because of its larger population.
A similar study was also released by the Asia Competitive Institute at the National University of Singapore in 2017. In the study published every two years, the ease of doing business in Jakarta is ranked 4th out of 34 provinces. Jakarta is behind East Java, West Java, and Central Java.
One of the key variables determining the competitiveness of a city or country relates to construction licensing. The World Bank's 2019 EODB study states that the property licensing and registration scores are 66.57 and 61.67, respectively. These scores are lower than nearby countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam which are above 70.
For this reason, JPI invites the government, developers and consultants to simplify the licensing process. Important points in the simplification include formulating rules for building requirements such as fire protection. These rules facilitate the evaluation and approval process. The goal is to achieve the licensing process target of 8 months. Currently, the licensing series is only completed in 21 months according to practitioners in a study conducted by the Jakarta Property Institute.