About Batam
The largest city in the province of the Riau Islands, Batam's administration covers the 3 main islands of Batam, Rempang and Galang that are collectively called "Barelang" (plus a few other little islands bobbing in the ocean). The city of Batam is an urban core with an industrial zone and bridges connect it to both Rempang and Galang Islands. An industrial boomtown with a growing transport hub and a part of the free-trade zone in the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore Growth Triangle, it sits 20km off Singapore's south coast. A bustling hub, its' population is around the 1,164,352 mark and it is the closest part of Indonesia to Singapore. Inhabited by Malays since 231AD, Batam is awash in bays, islets and peninsulas with a tropical climate that will keep you sweating. Coworking venues have opened up in Batam to cater to its' intrepid souls who have no desire to swap their home ground for the big city of Singapore.
You will have to brush up on your Indonesian, but you will hear plenty of other languages being chattered around the streets (think Mandarin, Javanese and Hokkien to name a few), as its' people are a mix of Javanese, Malays, Batak, Minangkabau and Chinese giving it a multicultural mix. You will find an important symbol of Islamic religious life in the main square where the Great Mosque of Batam proudly sits. As it's located close to the ports of Singapore, Batam is a bustling hub for shipbuilding, electronics manufacturing and transporting goods. It has lower labor costs and special government incentives with many factories owned by foreign companies. If you want to quickly escape to the big smoke of Singapore, there are plenty of local ferry terminals to choose from.
Indonesia has a flourishing digital economy happening that has been forecasted to be the 4th largest economy in the world by 2050, if it continues at this same rate of expansion. It has a tech-savvy middle class that is young and in touch with the latest trends happening on a global basis. It has a reported 88 million online users with 79 million active on social media. It is little wonder that coworking spaces are appearing on the streets of Batam in a country where startups are gaining international funding and receiving the recognition they deserve.