•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

The city’s first department store, Sarinah, is to be revamped and reopened as a souvenir center and promoter of Indonesian products this May, its president director said on Friday.

“Sarinah is a historical monument well-known for its choice of Indonesian handicrafts. We aim to bring back the elegance of Sarinah in the ’60s,” Jimmy Gani told the Jakarta Globe.

The store opened in 1967 to the delight of many, but as Indonesia experienced rapid economic progress through the years, skyscrapers and luxury shopping malls began to dot the capital’s skyline and Sarinah appeared to get lost in the midst of the sprawl.

Located on Jalan MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta, the store’s fifth to seventh floors will be entirely overhauled and dedicated to souvenir shops.

“The fifth floor will display general batik-wear. The sixth will be for upscale batik collections and the seventh will have handicrafts,” Jimmy said.

He added that one floor would be converted to hold exhibitions to present the best wares that the Indonesian provinces have to offer to foreign tourists.

The store plans to provide shuttle buses from major Jakarta hotels to encourage visits from big-spending tourists.

“It is our main vision to present Indonesia’s culture variety to both domestic and international visitors,” he said.

Jimmy said the company was also renovating the other floors and he had asked tenants to improve their own shops.

“We will launch the new Sarinah on May 20,” he said, adding that an Indonesian restaurant would open on the 14th floor by the middle of the year. The department store also will sell the recently launched souvenir brand called Jakarta Punya (Jakarta’s Own).

Jimmy said Sarinah was driven by two business objectives: retail and tourism.

Sarinah was inaugurated by then President Sukarno on Aug. 15, 1966. It was considered Indonesia’s first modern department store and was meant to spur economic development.

“The bigger plan is that we want Sarinah to return to its golden days,” Jimmy said.

He said Sarinah currently has three stores. Besides the revamp of the Jakarta store, the outlets in Malang, East Java, and Yogyakarta are also scheduled to be given face-lifts.

Sarinah’s longer-term plan, he said, calls for an ambitious expansion across the archipelago and abroad.

The company plans to open stores in Batam, Bali, Balikpapan, Makassar, Semarang and at Yogyakarta’s Prambanan Temple. These are due to be followed by 20 to 30 additional stores in 2011 in Indonesia and overseas.