OCTOBER 2017et lagged in Jakarta, I open the curtains
and look out on the sleeping metropolis.
The roads, chock-full of crawling traffic
during the day, are empty at this time. And
even through the double-glazed windows
of the 56th floor of the Westin (the tallest hotel in the
country), I can hear the 4am call to prayer rising up
among the darkened tower blocks.
Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population
(87 per cent of 261 million people), and there are
hundreds of mosques all over the capital where
devotees go to pray up to five times a day. The
National Mosque is the largest in Southeast Asia,
with space for 200,000 people, but Jakarta has also
been experimenting with “mosque-mobiles”, to make
worship during busy times, such as Ramadan, easier.
For many, attending mosques is as much a part
of life as visiting the city’s 250 or so glitzy marble
shopping malls, new Meccas to consumerism built
for the burgeoning middle class. Around 88 million
Indonesians now fit into this demographic – greater
than the entire population of Germany or Thailand.
That’s a lot of spending power.
Chris Wren, chief executive officer of the British
Chamber of Commerce (britcham.or.id), says: “Twenty
years ago, there were only a few Indonesians that
could afford to have a glass of wine in an international
restaurant. Now the middle classes are wining and
dining. The wealth is filtering down.” The presence of
many familiar international brands – from M&S, Tesco,
Debenhams, H&M and the Body Shop to Armani,
Bose, Ralph Lauren, Nike and Tag Heuer – attest to
investor confidence in consumer demand.
Joel Derbyshire, director of trade and investment for
the UK Department for International Trade (UKDIT) in
Jakarta, says: “There are more malls in Jakarta than any
other city in the world. People love shopping. Whereas
in the UK we might go to parks, the mindset here is
that you go to a mall – they are air conditioned and
have all kinds of things in them – I went to one with a
huge waterpark, and some have cinemas with beds in
them and huge karaoke centres.”
I take an Uber to the Central Park mall in West Jakarta,
11km north of my hotel. It’s a slow crawl through rush
hour traffic, which my driver tells me lasts from 7am to
9am, and from 4pm to as late as 9pm. One of the largest
shopping complexes, not only does it have a glowing,
elevated tunnel linking it to the Neo Soho mall across
the road, but a Pullman hotel, and an urban garden
with water fountains, lawns and trees lit up in pink and
purple fairy lights. I sit on the terrace of a restaurant
and watch as a violent rainstorm forces everyone inside.Business in... Jakarta I 29J
Jakarta’s skyline
shows its modernising
ambitions