Investigation Launched Into Organizer of Jakarta Fair

Monopoly allegations against the organizer of the annual Jakarta Fair have resurfaced with the Business Competition Supervisory Commission announcing on Wednesday that it had launched an investigation into the company.

PT Jakarta International Expo, majority-owned by businesswoman Siti Hartati Murdaya, has been running the Jakarta Fair — a large annual expo held each July — since 2004.

Two years ago regional lawmakers asked the Jakarta government to change a regulation requiring the fair to be held at the Kemayoran fairgrounds, which is owned and managed by JI Expo, and to allow other firms to compete to become the organizer of the annual expo. They also asked why JI Expo had never paid any dividends to the Jakarta government, which owns 13 percent of the company.

“PT Jakarta International Expo is allegedly engaging in monopoly practices related to the Jakarta Fair,” the commission, also known as the KPPU, said in a statement.

“The [Jakarta] city administration regulation that says the event is held at Kemayoran fairgrounds doesn’t mean Jakarta International Expo should be the sole organizer for such a big annual event,” it said.

“As for the city administration, we will ask them to revise a regulation [about the fair] so that the event does not have to be conducted exclusively in Kemayoran,” the KPPU said.

If the fair remains at Kemayoran, the city administration should allow other firms to rent space from JI Expo, to help reduce entry fees to the fair, it said.

This year tickets were Rp 15,000 ($1.59) on weekdays and Rp 20,000 on the weekend.

JI Expo managing director Budi Santoso said his company was not guilty of monopoly practices. “We are the organizer of the event in accordance to a regional regulation. The rule wasn’t made by us. It was the city administration who made it,” he said.

As the owner of the Kemayoran fairgrounds, JI Expo has the right to be the organizer of the event, Budi said. “If the city wants us to organize it, we will continue to do it,” he said.

Established in 1968, the Jakarta Fair was previously organized by a foundation controlled by the city administration and was held at the National Monument (Monas) in Central Jakarta. In 1991 the event was shifted from Monas and was held at several locations before ending up at Kemayoran.

JI Expo was appointed by the city administration to run the fair in 2003, after it had taken over the assets of PT Jakarta International Trade Fair Corporation, a joint venture firm between businessman Edward Soeryadjaja, the city administration and a consortium of Japanese firms, which had been running the fair prior to that.

source : The Jakarta Globe.com