Batam
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Batam ( Indonesian Pulau Batam ) is the most populous of the Indonesian Riau Islands south of Singapore in the Malay Archipelago.
Geography
Batam is located 20 km south of Singapore and Malaysia, and 80 km northeast of belonging to Indonesia Sumatra. In the neighborhood are other islands in the Riau group: in the East Bintan, in the south and west Rempang Bulan - added a number of smaller islands.
Along with some of the islands it forms the archipelago Barelang (abbreviated from Batam Rempang - Galang ).
Batam is in the province of Riau Kepulauan and has an area of 415 km ². The main town is Nagoya.
Traffic
After Jakarta, the journey takes the ferry one day. Speedboats go to Singapore every 30 minutes, the trip also takes 30 minutes ..
The road Il. Trans Barelang via a completed in 1997 and 644 m long road bridge to the small southern neighbor island of Tonton and other bridges of Tonton by Nipah (420 m long and also in 1997 completed ) of Nipah after Setoko (270 m) and from Setoko after Rempang (365 m).
To the east of the island is Hang Nadim International Airport, which was built in 1965 and in 2006 3.3 million passengers handling services.
Population
Batam has about 600,000 inhabitants, with 85 % Malay- Indonesian and 14% of Chinese origin. Originally it was the main occupation fishing and sea transport. The Orang According to (Seafarers) live in houseboats or stilt houses on the sea.
Malay and Islamic influences characterize the culture, especially music and dance. Worth mentioning is the Jogi Dance, which is available only on Batam, also the Arabic influence Zapin, the Persembahan and the Ronggeng dance.
Economy
The tourism increased from 60,000 in 1985 to 606,000 overnight stays in 1991, most of the tourists are from Singapore ( 74%) and Malaysia ( 10%).
Due to its proximity to the island -state of Singapore and Malaysian Johor Bahru to Batam has developed with an airport, a port and about 20 industrial parks, where more than 170,000 people work an industrial center.
To promote the sector, the Indonesian government has canceled environmental laws and on Batam wastes and contaminated soils from Singapore on landfills. Even the not tolerated in Singapore prostitution has spread to Batam.
The Indonesian government has transferred the control authority of the Batam Industrial Development Authority ( BIDA ), which is outside the local administrations. The companies from Singapore to close their contracts mostly from the Salim Group. Both BIDA as well as Salim have close ties to those in power in Indonesia, through nepotism led to injustices and enrichments. For example, were paid in land expropriation compensation is too low.
History
Batam was already 231 mentioned n.Chr.in Chinese chronicles. In the 13th century, the island came under the rule of the Kingdom of Malacca, then followed until the 18th century the Sultan of Johor. The coastal towns against Singapore were known as pirates hiding places.
Dutch and British clarified in the British -Dutch Treaty of 1824 their areas of influence: Batam and the neighboring islands came to the kingdom of Riau Lingga and were later taken over by the Dutch East India Company.
Since independence in 1949 Batam belongs to Indonesia.
1970 lived on the island, only 7,000 people, and it was still 98% covered with forest.
With the establishment of the free trade zone Batam 1989 started strong economic growth - was modeled on Singapore. But the ambitious plans were with the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s, a damper.