Indonesia plan to follow one time zone instead of three is delayed

The Indonesian government's plan to put the whole 5,271 km wide archipelago on one time zone from 28 October 2012 has been delayed by slow-moving bureaucracy.

Edib Muslim, a spokesman for a committee that works to speed up economic development, said: "It cannot be implemented since we need the issuance of a decree from the government or president 90 days prior to implementation." He added that no such regulation had been issued.

The proposal has not yet reached the president's desk, said Lucky Eko Wuryanto, deputy for infrastructure and regional development at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs.

Hatta Rajasa, the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, said that many people still oppose the change, and that more discussion is needed to bring the different opinions together.

Indonesia's western region, including the island of Sumatra and the capital Jakarta on Java, is seven hours ahead of GMT. The central region, including Denpasar, is eight hours ahead, and eastern Indonesia, including Jayapura, is nine hours ahead of GMT.^[1]

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 in the west (Jakarta), UTC+8 in the centre (Denpasar) and UTC+9 in the east (Jayapura), unchanged since 1988.^[1] See also: Indonesia integrates three time zones into one (May 2012).