Focus IMT-GT

High Expectation For Aceh’s Sabang Free Trade Zone & Free Port
Strategically located at the confluence of the Melaka Straits, Andaman Sea and Indian Ocean, the Sabang Free Trade Zone & Free Port is Aceh’s bold bid to place itself on the radar screens of international investors. Covering an area of almost 25,000 sqkm off the north coast of Aceh, located about 18km from Banda Aceh, and governed by its own set of national parliament-approved laws designed to be business-and-investor friendly, the Sabang Free Trade Zone & Free Port is being positioned as a new regional hub for tourism, manufacturing, fisheries and logistics. As revealed by a recent visit to Sabang Free Trade Zone & Free Port, a number of regional and global-level investors have already, or are planning to, commit serious money to be the pioneers to get the ‘economic ball’ rolling. These include a plan by Ireland’s Dublin Port, potentially valued at more than half-a-billion US dollars, to develop a modern shipping hub at Sabang Free Port. Other investors, meanwhile, intend to upgrade the power generation & distribution system on Pulau Weh (where Sabang town and the Free Port are located), construct several business-class hotels and resorts, upgrade the telecommunications systems, upgrade roads and tourism facilities, develop light manufacturing activities, besides undertaking a number of other projects. Sabang was declared a free trade zone and free port in 2000 by then Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid with the aim of spurring economic growth in Aceh by creating a tourism, shipping and manufacturing hub, capitalizing on the zone’s natural beauty & resources, and its proximity to some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and neighbouring countries. A number of facilities were subsequently developed to support Sabang’s ambitions, including a deep water port, industrial estates, warehouses, civil aviation terminal and other such infrastructure. The tsunami tragedy of December 2004 temporary curtailed the development of the Free Trade Zone & Free Port, as Indonesian authorities were forced to shift their resources into humanitarian and relief efforts. With those efforts largely completed or well underway, however, the focus has swung back to establishing Sabang as a regional hub for manufacturing, logistics, tourism and fisheries. New additional facilities and infrastructure are being built or are in the pipeline, and the Management Board of Sabang Free Trade Zone & Free Port – fully entrusted and empowered to develop the zone – is actively seeking investors to undertake a host of projects in fisheries, tourism, trading, manufacturing, shipping & port services, among others. To find out what’s going on in the Sabang Free Trade Zone & Free Port, and to get an overview of some of the projects that are being implemented or are in the pipeline, grab a copy of the upcoming 5 th issue of FOCUS IMT-GT magazine.

High Expectation For Aceh’s Sabang Free Trade Zone & Free Port

Strategically located at the confluence of the Melaka Straits, Andaman Sea and Indian Ocean, the Sabang Free Trade Zone & Free Port is Aceh’s bold bid to place itself on the radar screens of international investors.

Covering an area of almost 25,000 sqkm off the north coast of Aceh, located about 18km from Banda Aceh, and governed by its own set of national parliament-approved laws designed to be business-and-investor friendly, the Sabang Free Trade Zone & Free Port is being positioned as a new regional hub for tourism, manufacturing, fisheries and logistics. As revealed by a recent visit to Sabang Free Trade Zone & Free Port, a number of regional and global-level investors have already, or are planning to, commit serious money to be the pioneers to get the ‘economic ball’ rolling.

These include a plan by Ireland’s Dublin Port, potentially valued at more than half-a-billion US dollars, to develop a modern shipping hub at Sabang Free Port. Other investors, meanwhile, intend to upgrade the power generation & distribution system on Pulau Weh (where Sabang town and the Free Port are located), construct several business-class hotels and resorts, upgrade the telecommunications systems, upgrade roads and tourism facilities, develop light manufacturing activities, besides undertaking a number of other projects.

Sabang was declared a free trade zone and free port in 2000 by then Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid with the aim of spurring economic growth in Aceh by creating a tourism, shipping and manufacturing hub, capitalizing on the zone’s natural beauty & resources, and its proximity to some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and neighbouring countries. A number of facilities were subsequently developed to support Sabang’s ambitions, including a deep water port, industrial estates, warehouses, civil aviation terminal and other such infrastructure.

The tsunami tragedy of December 2004 temporary curtailed the development of the Free Trade Zone & Free Port, as Indonesian authorities were forced to shift their resources into humanitarian and relief efforts. With those efforts largely completed or well underway, however, the focus has swung back to establishing Sabang as a regional hub for manufacturing, logistics, tourism and fisheries. New additional facilities and infrastructure are being built or are in the pipeline, and the Management Board of Sabang Free Trade Zone & Free Port – fully entrusted and empowered to develop the zone – is actively seeking investors to undertake a host of projects in fisheries, tourism, trading, manufacturing, shipping & port services, among others.

To find out what’s going on in the Sabang Free Trade Zone & Free Port, and to get an overview of some of the projects that are being implemented or are in the pipeline, grab a copy of the upcoming 5 th issue of FOCUS IMT-GT magazine.