THE RETURN OF BUSWORLD SOUTHEAST ASIA

Busworld SouthEast Asia 2022 marked the return of the bus and coach fair to Jakarta. Ashish Bhatia looks at the new line of buses and coaches with the potential of finding takers.

- Ashish Bhatia

Busworld SouthEast Asia 2022 revived the memories of an impressive debut at the Jakarta International Expo (JIEXPO) Kemayoran – Jakarta, in Indonesia, in 2019. Three years since the inaugural edition of the biennial trade fair, the world and the SouthEast Asian market have seen much water flown under the bridge. Covid-19 tattered the bus segment with sales nose diving, and plans spoken off at the debut show sent to the back burners. This included tackling an ageing bus fleet and responding to the call for ‘Coach Tourism’ in the country; tackling an exploding two-wheeler population by incentivising public transport and helping bus operators become more rational. The focus on growth and the addition of ~200,000 buses to the market shifted to recovery like in the other parts of the world.

The predominantly bus bodybuilding market (~600 bodybuilders) took a severe hit despite all of its potential including the TransJakarta, the world’s largest Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system at 251 km and the more recent Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) put in place to deals with rapid urbanisation and traffic bottlenecks. As if that wasn’t enough to deal with, the focus since has also been on promoting a new capital to succeed Jakarta with investors weighing the pros and cons. Most recently, generous incentives were doled out, including offering a 30-year tax break for companies investing in an estimated USD 32 bn project to build the new capital city Nusantara in a bid to entice private companies. A 350 per cent ‘super tax’ deduction for Research & Development (R&D) activities were also spoken of to sweeten the deal. This, say some, is far more generous compared to other Indonesian cities.