A government committee is proposing that
Indonesia launch a single time zone for the entire nation — from Sabang to
Merauke — on Sunday, Oct. 28.
“We can
start the policy at midnight,” Edib Muslim, the spokesman for the Committee for
the Expansion and Acceleration of Indonesian Economic Growth (KP3EI) said in
Jakarta on Friday.
The
date, which must be approved by the central government, was chosen to merge the
nation’s current three time zones since financial markets would be closed and
businesses less active, he added.
An
initial plan to launch the single time zone on Independence Day on Aug. 17 was
rejected to reduce confusion in advance of the observance of Idul Fitri, which
is scheduled for Aug. 19 and 20 this year, according to Edib.
A
single time zone was needed before the ASEAN Economic Community came into force
in 2015, Edib said. “We have less than 700 days to improve our competitiveness
among ASEAN countries.”
Businesses
and government officers throughout the archipelago would share identical
working hours after the switch, he said, thus improving coordination.
The
central government, Edib said, had the final say on the decision and was
currently evaluating the KP3EI’s request.
Luky
Eko Wuryanto, a senior deputy for infrastructure development at the Office of the
Coordinating Economic Minister, said that the minister, Hatta Rajasa, would
begin meeting with relevant stakeholders in June to discuss the switch.
“He
[Hatta] wants to receive input from all stakeholders on the potential effects
of the policy if it is implemented. All input will be taken into consideration
and reported to the President. Afterward, the government will determine all the
necessary steps to be taken,” Luky said.
Several
institutions were backing the new time zone, Luky said, although some asked for
90 days to fully implement the change once it was launched.
Indonesia
is currently divided into three time zones.
Sumatra
and Java, including the capital city of Jakarta, and western part of
Kalimantan, are on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)+7.
Meanhile,
Bali and Sulawesi islands, as well as the West and East Nusa Tenggara, are on
GMT+8, while the easternmost part of the country, which includes the provinces
of Maluku, North Maluku, West Papua and Papua, is on GMT+9.
The
single time zone would be pegged at GMT+8, which is the time zone used by
Brunei Darussalam, China, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Singapore,
Taiwan and Western Australia.
Implementing
a single national time zone has been a common practice, conducted by several
large countries with geographical scopes similar to that of Indonesia’s.
China,
for example, previously unified its five time zones into one. In late 2009,
Russia also considered unifying its 11 time zones.
Indonesia
has changed its time zones nine times. During the three years of Japanese
occupation during the World War II, Indonesia also had a single time zone,
based on Tokyo’s.
Hans
David Tampubolon
The
Jakarta Post
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