SOUTH KALIMANTAN POTENCIES (in brief)

picture is taken from www.indonesiatraveling.com 

Kalimantan Selatan (South kalimantan) is province located in Kalimantan Island, Indonesia. There are 13 cities and regencies covering this area. They are Banjarmasin (capital city), Banjarbaru, Banjar, Balangan, Barito Kuala, Hulu Sungai Selatan, Hulu Sungai Tengah, Hulu Sungai Utara, Kotabaru, Tabalong, Tanah Bumbu, Tanah laut and Tapin.  As a developing province, KalSel (short for Kalimantan Selatan) has got many potencies needed to be explored and benefitted. Here are some of Kalsel’s potencies:

1.       Mining, Coal is one of major sources that is seriously explored and ran important role in economy. Almost all regions in KalSel have coal mining site except for two cities (Banjarmasin and Banjarbaru). This province has got plentiful deposit of coal and its coal industry is second largest in Indonesia. Coal from KalSel uses to supply the energy for State Electricity Company (PLN), Industries and also shipped out to countries overseas like China, Malaysia, India, Japan, USA. The amount of coal export year 2013 is 138,78 million ton and is likely to rise (Kalselprov.go.id). Besides coal there are petroleum, gold, diamond, kaolin and stones.

2.       Agriculture, the main crop grows in KalSel is rice, since it is citizen’s staple food. Lots of fields grows it and it usually harvested twice or three times a year. The rice that grows in KalSel is different from other islands, the rice is smaller and is not sticking each other when cooked. Other main agriculture potency is oil palm, the oil palm plantation give a big amount of income to province. There are lots oil palm plantation company spring up all over the area because the land provide proper condition to oil palm to grow palmy. Other agriculture products are corn, sweet potato, cassava. For fruit there are lime, papaya, banana, durian, rambutan, kasturi (endemic fruit of KalSel) and langsat.

3.       Tourism, though the province is not famous for tourism, the government is growing, promoting and providing a good accomodation for tourist. Some famous destinations for tourism that the province highlighted are Loksado (waterfalls located in Hulu Sungai Selatan), Sarang Tiung (beach in Kotabaru), Pasar Terapung (floating market in Kuin, Banjarmasin and Banjar), Teluk Tamiyang (spot for diving in Kotabaru), Pulau kembang (an island inhabited by Bekantan -endemic primate of KalSel- in Barito river, Banjarmasin), Cahaya Bumi Selamat Market (a market specially sells diamonds and jewels).