Ecodistrict is a bilateral cooperation project between Indonesian-French government. This project is mainly financed by FASEP (Fonds d?etude et d?Aide au Secteur Prive) and has been undertaken since May 2013. The idea is to renovate a certain area within a city or regency, then if it works, the scale will be enlarged until the whole city is integrated in a sustainable system.

There are eight attributes to develop Ecodistrict, formulated by Indonesian government which is represented by the Ministry of Public Works under a specified program namely Program Pengembangan Kota Hijau (P2KH) or Green City Development Program. The attributes are Green Urban Design and Planning, Green Open Space, Green Transportation, Green Waste, Green Water, Green Energy, Green Building, and Green Community. During the study, the consultant which is French as it was pointed by the French Government, added an attribute to bring the sustainability even more comprehensive, that is Green Economy. It refers to the economy activity can be developed within the integrations among the attributes.

Among the cities and regencies involved in Green City Development Program, there were eight cities/regencies selected to be facilitated by continuous workshop and brainstorming. The eight cities had to make a proposal of a district within their administrative region. The top two cities/regencies will be studied further by the consultant. The two winners was released in February this year, and they are Mataram city and Bandung city.

Both cities have different case and challenge. In Mataram, they brought the case of coastal area development to be enhanced as a tourism district. They have challenge on the fishermen prosperity there and also the rob (flooding from the sea). Meanwhile in Bandung, they proposed to renovate an over-densed area in the heart of the city and to recover the role of their river which has been full of waste for years.

The study is being completed by the working team and will be delivered by the end of this year. Hopefully such collaboration among countries are determined to obtain real solutions on the ground.