Indonesia integrates three time zones into one

Indonesia plans to move to a single time zone, GMT+8, on 28 October 2012, the country’s trade ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. Today the country has three time zones: Jakarta, in the west, is at GMT+7, Denpasar in the centre at GMT+8, and Jayapura in the east at GMT+9.^[1] After the change, Indonesia will have the same time as Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.

According to economists, one time zone for the whole country will bring big savings, because office hours will be the same in Jakarta and in the cities of eastern Indonesia. Anton Gunawan, chief economist at Bank Danamon Indonesia, said the benefits will be better-synchronized trade and financial transactions in the regional markets.

Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said in the announcement in Jakarta that the change will boost the country’s economic development. At the moment the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX)^[2] opens 90 minutes later than the stock exchanges in Malaysia and Singapore; after the change it will open only 30 minutes later.

Aviliani, an economist at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance, said the change will be good for Indonesia: “It will make Indonesia’s financial market more integrated with other markets in the region like Hong Kong and Singapore, it will increase the flow of exports and imports and cooperation between different regional governments.”

When our time zone is the same as our neighboring countries, then we could save substantially in terms of working hours, traffic and economic activity, said Hatta Rajasa, the chief economics minister. Indonesian companies that trade with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan will also benefit, because Indonesia will then be in the same time zone as these places.

Update, 26 October 2026: The single time zone never came: the plan was put on hold in 2012, and Indonesia still has three time zones: UTC+7, UTC+8 and UTC+9.^[1] See also: Indonesia delays its 2012 plan for one time zone.