Riau Islands

Not to be confused with Riau Archipelago or Riau Province.

Riau Islands Province Provinsi Kepulauan Riau
Province
Other transcription(s)
• Jawi	كڤولاوان رياو
• Chinese	廖内群岛
Great Mosque of Batam
Seal
Motto(s):  Berpancang Amanah Bersauh Marwah (Malay) (With trust as foundation, and dignity as the anchor)
Location of Riau Islands in Indonesia
Country	Indonesia
Capital	Tanjung Pinang
Largest city	Batam
Government
• Acting Governor	Nurdin Basirun
Area
• Total	8,201.72 km2 (3,166.70 sq mi)
Population  (2015)
• Total	1,968,313
• Density	240/km2 (620/sq mi)
Demographics
• Ethnic groups	Malays (35.6%) Javanese (18.2%) Chinese (14.3%) Minangkabau (9.3%) Batak (8.1%) Buginese (2.2%) Banjarese (0.7%)
• Religion	Islam (70.34%) Protestantism (11.17%) Buddhist(9.09%) Hinduism (4.65%) Roman Catholicism (2.28%) Confucianism (0.2%)
• Languages	Indonesian, Malay, Chinese
Time zone	UTC+07 (WIB)
Vehicle registration	BP
HDI	0.734 (High)
HDI rank	4th (2014)
Website	kepriprov.go.id

Riau Islands Province (Indonesian; Provinsi Kepulauan Riau, acronym; Kepri, Jawi: كڤولاوان رياو‎, Chinese: 廖内群岛; pinyin: Liào nèi qúndǎo), is a province of Indonesia. It comprises the principal group of the Riau Archipelago, together with other island groups to the south, east and northeast. In Indonesian, Riau Islands and Riau Archipelago are synonymous and are distinguished by the word for province, "Provinsi".

Originally part of the Riau province, the Riau Islands were split off as a separate province in September 2002.

Geography and population

The island of Batam, which lies within the central core group of islands (the Riau Archipelago), contains a majority of the province's population. Since becoming part of a Demilitarized Zone with Singapore in 2006, it has experienced high population growth rates. Other highly populated islands in the Riau Archipelago include Bintan and Karimun, while the archipelago also includes islands such as Bulan and Kundur. There are around 3,200 islands in the province, which has its capital at Tanjung Pinang in the south of Bintan Island. The province includes the Lingga Islands to the south of the main Riau Archipelago, while to the northeast lies the Tudjuh Archipelago, between Borneo and mainland Malaysia; the Tudjuh Archipelago consists of four distinct groups — the Anambas Islands, Natuna Islands, Tambelan islands and Badas Islands — which were attached to the new province, though not geographically part of the Riau Archipelago. The 2015 census count was 1,968,313, less than estimated but nevertheless the 2nd fastest growing province in the nation.

Language

The language of the Riau Islands is known as Riau Malay. The Riau Islands are considered the birthplace of the modern Malay language, though it was the classical Malaccan Malay of the Johor court rather than Riau Malay that formed the basis of the standard language.

History

Further information: Riau-Lingga Sultanate

From Srivijayan times until the 16th century, Riau was a natural part of greater Malay kingdoms or sultanates, in the heart of what is often called the Malay World, which stretched from eastern Sumatra to Borneo. The Malay-related Orang Laut tribes inhabited the islands and formed the backbone of most Malay kingdoms from Srivijaya to the Johor Sultanate for the control of trade routes going through the straits.

After the fall of Malacca in 1511, the Riau islands became the centre of political power of the mighty Sultanate of Johor or Johor-Riau, based on Bintan Island, and were for long considered the centre of Malay culture.

But history changed the fate of Riau as a political, cultural or economic centre when European powers struggled to control the regional trade routes and took advantage of political weaknesses within the sultanate. Singapore island, that had been for centuries part of the same greater Malay kingdoms and sultanates, and under direct control of the Sultan of Johor, came under control of the British.

The creation of a European-controlled territory in the heart of the Johor-Riau natural boundaries broke the sultanate into two parts, destroying the cultural and political unity that had existed for centuries. The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 consolidated this separation, with the British controlling all territories north of the Singapore strait and the Dutch controlling territories from Riau to Java.

After the European powers withdrew from the region, the new independent governments had to reorganise and find balance after inheriting 100 years of colonial boundaries. Before finding their current status, the territories of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Borneo struggled and even came into military conflict against each other, and the Riau islands once again found themselves in the middle of a regional struggle.

The strong cultural unity of the region with Riau in the heart of this region never returned, and the line drawn by the British in 1819 remained, dividing the area into three new countries in 1965: Singapore, the Malaysian federation in the north, and Indonesia in the south.

Some level of unity returned in the Riau region for the first time after 150 years, with the creation of the Sijori Growth Triangle in 1989. But while bringing back some economical wealth to Riau, the Sijori Growth Triangle somewhat further broke the cultural unity within the islands. With Batam island receiving most of the industrial investments and dramatically developing into a regional industrial centre, it attracted hundreds of thousands of non-Malay Indonesian migrants, changing forever the demographic balance in the archipelago.

However, the upside of this demographic shift is that Batam is more multi-cultural and civilized than how it was before, with a greater potential for better economic and educational development in future. Batam has become an industrial island with a booming tourism sector. Previously under the native population's administration, it was nothing more than an oversized fishing & farming village with a high level of illiteracy and economic stagnation.

There have been various attempts at both independence and autonomy for this part of Indonesia since the founding of Indonesia in 1945.

Administrative divisions

This province is divided into five regencies (kabupaten) and two cities (kotamadya), listed below with their (provisional) populations at the 2010 Census:

Name	Area (km2)	Population Census 2000	Population Census 2010	Population Est 2014	Capital	Notes
Batam City	960.25	455,103	944,285	1,142,646	Batam	includes Bulan, Galang and Rempang islands, as well as all of Batam Island
Tanjung Pinang City	144.56	142,929	187,359	226,716	Tanjung Pinang	on Bintan Island
Anambas Islands Regency (Kepulauan Anambas)	590.14	28,510	37,411	45,270	Tarempa
Bintan Regency	1,318.21	110,068	142,300	172,192	Bandar Seri Bentan
Karimun Regency	912.75	171,405	212,561	257,212	Tanjung Balai	including Karimun and Kundur Islands
Lingga Regency	2,266.77	79,451	86,244	104,361	Daik	covering the Lingga Islands
Natuna Regency	2,009.04	52,741	69,003	83,498	Ranai

Hubs

As the closest neighbour of Singapore and to realise that Soekarno–Hatta International Airport is fully utilised, Lion Air is developing hangars in Batam Island and Garuda Indonesia is developing a new airport, with runway and maintenance facilities so as to make a new air hub in Bintan Island.

External links

• Riau Islands travel guide from Wikivoyage
• http://www.navegar-es-preciso.com/news/islas-anambas/
• http://www.navegar-es-preciso.com/news/archipielago-de-tambelan/