"Indonesian island’s traditional residents face relocation for ‘sustainable’ project", 26 September 2025

[...] in February this year, Xinyi denied involvement in Rempang Eco City. [...] it said that it “has not initiated any eco-city project and has not reached any agreements or contracts”. [...].

[...] The next month, the project suffered a further setback after revelations that it was excluded from Indonesia’s National Strategic Project (PSN) list, raising questions about its priority and viability.

But officials from the Batam Indonesia Free Zone Authority [...] publicly maintain their commitment. The agency’s head and mayor of the province’s largest city Batam, Amsakar Achmad, stated in March that the exclusion from the PSN list “does not mean that the project is no longer valid or has been cancelled”.

[...] Relocation efforts were ongoing as recently as July. Residents of Tanjung Banon were evicted, and their plantations razed to make way for further construction of houses for the local transmigration programme.

[...] In September, Susan Herawati, secretary general of the People’s Coalition for Fisheries Justice (KIARA), presented unpublished research showing that potential environmental losses as a result of the Rempang Eco City project being forced through will be IDR 1.3 billion (USD 78,000) per household per year for residents remaining on the island [...].