Indonesia’s High-Speed Railway Satellite Towns Would Create New Wealth

May 2, 2019 (EIRNS)—Reporting on Indonesia’s high-speed railroad now under construction on April 30, Reuters said the Indonesian-Chinese consortium building a high-speed rail link between the capital Jakarta and the textiles hub of Bandung expects to earn $18 billion by developing satellite towns and industrial centers along the line, according to a consortium official. The project, part of the Belt and Road Initiative, will be “the first high-speed rail of Southeast Asia,” China’s Ambassador to Indonesia Xiao Qian stated.

Analysts say the plan in Indonesia to develop four new towns and industrial centers, the way the Chinese had done in developing its own high-speed railroad, has followed China’s urban development model. One of the sites chosen is an old tea plantation which is due to be transformed into a 5,000-hectare city with high-rise buildings and a new university. Indonesian and Chinese officials say the project’s success will be a gauge for future infrastructure cooperation.

Lyndon LaRouche identified this “development corridor” concept when he proposed the Eurasian Land-Bridge in the 1990s. As he summarized the principle nicely in a May 10, 1997 webcast:

“You have development corridors, where you develop on an area of 50 to 70 kilometers either side of your rail link, your pipeline, so forth. You develop this area with industry, with mining, with all these kinds of things, which is the way you pay for a transportation link. Because of all the rich economic activity: every few kilometers of distance along this link, there’s something going on, some economic activity. People working; people building things; people doing things.”

This is how, LaRouche went on, we will

“transform this planet, in great projects of infrastructure-building, which will give you the great industries, the new industries, the new agriculture, and other things we desperately need. There is no need for anybody on this planet, who is able to work, to be out of work! It’s that simple.”