REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DEPOK -- The ministries of culture and education and of tourism have officially announced that Mount Padang is a tourist destination, according to General Director of the Culture-based Creative Economy for the Ministry of Tourism Ahman Sya.

Sya stated here on Tuesday that West Java's provincial government had approved the Mount Padang site, located in Cianjur, West Java, as a Great Jakarta tourist destination.

"The announcement will empower the local communities and improve the people's welfare," he said at a discussion held at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia, campus in Depok.

Sya believed the Mount Padang site would attract more tourists and become a preferred tourism destination in Indonesia. "If three million tourists visit Jakarta in one year, one million of them would visit the Mount Padang site," he remarked.

However, Sya noted that the Mount Padang site still needs to improve its transportation, facilities and infrastructure. "The Cultural and Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Anies Baswedan supported the decision to recognize the Mount Padang site," he said.

Previously, Mount Padang had only been recognized as a cultural heritage site that was of interest solely to researchers. In fact, a researcher from the Indonesian National Research Centre for Archaeology, Bagyo Prasetyo, said the Mount Padang site contained megalithic remains.

Similarly, an archaeologist from the Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia, Ali Akbar, said the Mount Padang site had been created some 5.2 thousand years ago.

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