WELCOME TO BATAM

Batam is located in Riau Island Province, Indonesia. Batam city is the largest city in Riau Island, with 1.196.396 population according to BPS Riau Island province data. Batam is a city with a very strategic location. Apart, from being on international shipping lanes, this city is very close and directly borders Singapore and Malaysia. As a planned city, Batam is one of the cities with the fastest growth in Indonesia.

Batam has a land area of ​​715 km², while the total area reaches 1,575 km². Batam City has a tropical climate with an average temperature of 26 to 34 degrees Celsius. This city has hilly plains and valleys. The land is red soil which is less fertile and the weather often changes so that only crops can grow without following the seasons.

Batam City has two types of government, namely the City Government and the Business Body or Badan Pengusahaan (BP). However, on September 17 2019, the dualism government ended so that the Batam Pengusahaan (BP) was given to the Batam Mayor's Government based on the policies contained in Government Regulation (PP) Number 62 of 2019 concerning the Second Amendment to PP 46/2007 concerning the Batam Free Trade Zone and Free Port.

History of Batam, Batam Island was first inhabited by Malay people known as Strait people since 231 AD. This island, which was once a battlefield for Admiral Hang Nadim's struggle against invaders, was used by the government in the 1960s as a logistics base for petroleum on Sambu Island.

Batam is one of the islands in the Riau Archipelago group and is an island among 329 islands located between the Strait of Malacca and Singapore which together form the Batam region. Written records about this island are scarce, where there is only one piece of literature that mentions the name Batam, namely the London Treaty which regulated the division of territory between the Netherlands and England. However, according to cruisers from China, this island has been inhabited since 231 AD when Singapore was still called Pulau Ujung.

Before receiving special attention from the central government, Batam was an empty island in the form of wilderness with almost no pulse of life. However, there are several groups of people who previously inhabited this island. They work as fish catchers and farmers. They were not involved much at all in changing the physical form of this island, which is an expanse of wilderness.

In the 1970s, Batam began to be developed as a logistics and operational base for the oil and gas industry by Pertamina. with the initial aim of making Batam the Singapore of Indonesia, then based on Presidential Decree (Keppres) Number 41 of 1973, the development of Batam was supported and entrusted to a government institution called the Batam Island Industrial Regional Development Authority or now known as the Badan Pengusahaan Batam (BP Batam ) as a driving force for Batam's development.

In line with the rapid development of Batam Island, in the 1980s, based on Government Regulation Number 34 of 1983, the Batam District area which is part of the Riau Islands Regency, had its status upgraded to Batam Municipality which has the task of carrying out government and community administration and supporting the development carried out Badan Pengusahaan Batam (BP Batam) authority.

In the reform era at the end of the 1990s, with Law number 53 of 1999, the Batam administrative municipality changed its status to become an autonomous region of the Batam City Government to carry out government and development functions by involving the Badan Pengusahaan Batam (BP Batam).