Jakarta, Jakarta Raya, Indonesia

🇮🇩 Jakarta, officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta, is the capital of Indonesia. It lies on the north-west coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta is the largest city in Southeast Asia and serves as the diplomatic capital of ASEAN. Jakarta is the centre of the economy, culture and politics of Indonesia. It has province level status. Its metropolitan area is the world's second-most populous urban area. Jakarta's business opportunities, and its ability to offer a potentially higher standard of living than is available in other parts of the country, have attracted migrants from across the Indonesian archipelago, making it a melting pot of numerous cultures.

Jakarta's nickname is "the Big Durian", after the thorny, strong-smelling fruit of that name that is native to the region.

Jakarta is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Southeast Asia. Established in the fourth century as Sunda Kelapa, the city became an important trading port for the Sunda Kingdom. At one time, it was the de facto capital of the Dutch East Indies, when it was known as Batavia. Jakarta was officially a city within West Java until 1960, when its official status was changed to a province with special capital region distinction. As a province, its government consists of five administrative cities and one administrative regency. Jakarta is an alpha world city and is the seat of the ASEAN secretariat, Financial institutions such as the Bank of Indonesia, Indonesia Stock Exchange, and corporate headquarters of numerous Indonesian companies and multinational corporations are located in the city. In 2017, the city's GRP PPP was estimated at US$483.4 billion.

Jakarta's primary challenges include rapid urban growth, ecological breakdown, gridlocked traffic, congestion, and flooding. Jakarta is sinking up to 17 cm (6.7 inches) per year, which, coupled with the rising of sea levels, has made the city more prone to flooding. It is one of the fastest-sinking capitals in the world. Because of these challenges, in August 2019, President Joko Widodo announced that the capital of Indonesia would be moved from Jakarta to the planned city of Nusantara, in the province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.

Economy Indonesia is the largest economy of ASEAN, and Jakarta is the economic nerve centre of the Indonesian archipelago. Jakarta's nominal GDP was US$483.8 billion in 2016, which is about 17.5% of Indonesia's. Jakarta ranked at 21 in the list of Cities Of Economic Influence Index in 2020 by CEOWORLD magazine. According to the Japan Center for Economic Research, GRP per capita of Jakarta will rank 28th among the 77 cities in 2030 from 41st in 2015, the largest in Southeast Asia. Savills Resilient Cities Index has predicted Jakarta to be within the top 20 cities in the world by 2028.

Jakarta's economy depends highly on manufacturing and service sectors such as banking, trading and financial. Industries include electronics, automotive, chemicals, mechanical engineering and biomedical sciences. The head office of Bank Indonesia and Indonesia Stock Exchange are located in the city. Most of the SOEs include Pertamina, PLN, Angkasa Pura, and Telkomsel operate head offices in the city, as do major Indonesian conglomerates, such as Salim Group, Sinar Mas Group, Astra International, Gudang Garam, Kompas-Gramedia, and MNC Group. The headquarters of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Indonesian Employers Association are also located in the city. As of 2017, the city is home to six Forbes Global 2000, two Fortune 500 and seven Unicorn companies. Google and Alibaba has regional cloud centres in Jakarta.

As of 2018, Jakarta contributes about 17% of Indonesia's GRDP (Gross Regional Domestic Product). In 2017, the economic growth was 6.22%. Throughout the same year, the total value of investment was Rp 108.6 trillion (US$8 billion), an increase of 84.7% from the previous year. In 2015, GDP per capita was estimated at Rp 194.87 million (US$14,570). The most significant contributions to GRDP were by finance, ownership and business services (29%); trade, hotel and restaurant sector (20%), and manufacturing industry sector (16%). In 2007, the increase in per capita GRDP of Jakarta inhabitants was 11.6% compared to the previous year. Both GRDP by at current market price and GRDP by at 2000 constant price in 2007 for the Municipality of Central Jakarta, which was Rp 146 million and Rp 81 million, was higher than other municipalities in Jakarta.

The Wealth Report 2015 by Knight Frank reported that 24 individuals in Indonesia in 2014 had wealth at least US$1 billion and 18 live in Jakarta. The cost of living continues to rise. Both land price and rents have become expensive. Mercer's 2017 Cost of Living Survey ranked Jakarta as 88th costliest city in the world for expatriates. Industrial development and the construction of new housing thrive on the outskirts, while commerce and banking remain concentrated in the city centre. Jakarta has a bustling luxury property market. Knight Frank, a global real estate consultancy based in London, reported in 2014 that Jakarta offered the highest return on high-end property investment in the world in 2013, citing a supply shortage and a sharply depreciated currency as reasons.

Economy: Retail As of 2015, with a total of 550 hectares, Jakarta had the largest shopping mall floor area within a single city. Malls include Plaza Indonesia, Grand Indonesia, Plaza Senayan, Senayan City, Pacific Place, Gandaria City, ÆON Mall Tanjung Barat, Mall Taman Anggrek, and Pondok Indah Mall. Fashion retail brands in Jakarta include Debenhams, in Senayan City and Lippo Mall Kemang Village, Japanese Sogo, Seibu in Grand Indonesia Shopping Town, and French brand, Galeries Lafayette, at Pacific Place. The new Satrio-Casablanca shopping belt includes centres such as Kuningan City, Mal Ambassador, Kota Kasablanka, and Lotte Shopping Avenue. Shopping malls are also located at Grogol and Puri Indah in West Jakarta.

Traditional markets include Blok M, Pasar Mayestik, Tanah Abang, Senen, Pasar Baru, Glodok, Mangga Dua, Cempaka Mas, and Jatinegara. Special markets sell antique goods at Surabaya Street and gemstones in Rawabening Market.

Tourist Industry Though Jakarta has been named the most popular location as per tag stories, and ranked eighth most-posted among the cities in the world in 2017 on image-sharing site Instagram, it is not a top international tourist destination. The city, however, is ranked as the fifth fastest-growing tourist destination among 132 cities according to MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index. The World Travel and Tourism Council also listed Jakarta as among the top ten fastest-growing tourism cities in the world in 2017 and categorised it as an emerging performer, which will see a significant increase in tourist arrivals in less than ten years. According to Euromonitor International's latest Top 100 City Destinations Ranking of 2019, Jakarta ranked at 57th among 100 most visited cities of the world.

Most of the visitors attracted to Jakarta are domestic tourists. As the gateway of Indonesia, Jakarta often serves as a stop-over for foreign visitors on their way to other Indonesian tourist destinations such as Bali, Lombok, Komodo Island and Yogyakarta. Jakarta is trying to attract more international tourist by MICE tourism, by arranging increasing numbers of conventions. In 2012, the tourism sector contributed Rp. 2.6 trillion (US$268.5 million) to the city's total direct income of Rp. 17.83 trillion (US$1.45 billion), a 17.9% increase from the previous year 2011.

Media and entertainment Jakarta is home to most of Indonesian national newspapers, besides some local-based newspapers. Daily local newspapers in Jakarta are Pos Kota and Warta Kota, as well as the now-defunct Indopos. National newspapers based in Jakarta include Kompas, Koran Tempo, Media Indonesia and Republika, most of them has a news segment covering the city. A bunch of business newspapers (Bisnis Indonesia, Investor Daily and Kontan) and sports newspapers (TopSkor and Super Ball) are also published.

Newspapers other than in Indonesian, mainly for a national and global audience, are also published daily. Examples are English-language newspapers The Jakarta Post and online-only The Jakarta Globe. Chinese language newspapers also circulate, such as Indonesia Shang Bao (印尼商报), Harian Indonesia (印尼星洲日报), and Guo Ji Ri Bao (国际日报). The only Japanese language newspaper is The Daily Jakarta Shimbun (じゃかるた新聞).

Around 75 radio stations broadcast in Jakarta, 52 on the FM band, and 23 on the AM band. Radio entities are based in Jakarta, for example, national radio networks MNC Trijaya FM, Prambors FM, Trax FM, I-Radio, Hard Rock FM, Delta FM, Global FM and the public radio RRI; as well as local stations Gen FM, Radio Elshinta and Z99,9.

Jakarta is the headquarters for Indonesia's public television TVRI as well as private national television networks, such as Metro TV, tvOne, Kompas TV, RCTI and NET. Jakarta has local television channels such as TVRI Jakarta, JakTV, Elshinta TV and KTV. Many TV stations are analogue PAL, but some are now converting to digital signals using DVB-T2 following a government plan to digital television migration.