A Little Story about Batam

Batam is one of the many islands in Indonesia, noted as one of the youngest province of the provincial capital of Tanjung Pinang. Batam’s sea geographically located at Malacca Straits and Singapore Straits, with an area of 1570.35 km ², because Batam is an island so it’s land area  only 715 km ² or 115% of the area of Singapore in a whole. Batam have tropical climate with a temperature of 26-34 degrees Celsius, and is 160 m above sea level with the terrain is hilly and undulating.

Batam is referred to as its Singapore-Indonesia is one of the largest industries in Indonesia, with a population growth tends to be relatively stable, Batam itself centered on the city of Batam Centre which consists of 12 districts. Batam itself covers more than 400 islands with its 329 islands have been named among the islands that are included in the frontier country.

Batam Island is based on the geographical borders:
                              North side: Adjacent to the Strait of Singapore   
                              South side: Bordered by District Senayang
                             West: Bordered by Karimun
                             East: Bordering the North Bintan district

Because the Batam region lies in the busiest International shipping lanes in the world and only 12.5 nautical miles or about 20 km from Singapore, it become the gate traffic for tourists from abroad through domestic or international ports like Sekupang and Hang Nadim International Airport, making it as capital for the government to spur the development of the region in all aspects of life, then the government develop Batam island by Batam Industrial Development Authority.

Since twenty years ago, a small island Batam is located in the northern Strait of Singapore, has grown very rapidly in the most unexpected by people. Even at tahun1970an very few people know of its existence.

In the 1960s, Batam appointed as Logistics Oil Base that originates in the Sambu. Then, ten years later, defined as the Batam Industrial Work Environment with support from the Industrial Development Authority, known as Pulau Batam Authority Board, which is based on Presidential Decree no. 41 in 1973. Be continued with the legalization of government regulation in the 1980s, with 34 in 1983 which confirmed that the District Batam Municipality was upgraded to a Charge of running the Government Administration and Society and support the development of Batam Authority conducted.

In the late 1990s, based on the Act - Act 53 of 1999 then passed into Batam Municipality for the functioning of the Autonomous Region Government and Development in cooperation with the Batam Authority Board. Then, after going through the lengthy process for almost 2 years, finally issued Law - Law no.25 of 2002 on the establishment of the Riau Islands Province.

Under the leadership of Prof. DR. Ing BJ Habibie, who served as Minister of State for Research and Technology at that time, all parts of the island of Batam is expressed as a bonded area, thus further solidify its position as a more extensive area aimed at the export industry.

Until now, Batam is still trusted by third party as a destination for investors to invest and have the full support of the local city government.