Riau (province)
Encyclopedia
Riau is a province
Provinces of Indonesia
The province is the highest tier of local government subnational entity in Indonesia. Each province has its own local government, headed by a governor, and has its own legislative body...

 of Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, located in the center of Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

 along the Strait of Malacca
Strait of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow, stretch of water between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It is named after the Malacca Sultanate that ruled over the archipelago between 1414 to 1511.-Extent:...

. The provincial capital and largest city is Pekanbaru
Pekanbaru
Pekanbaru is the capital of Riau, a province in Indonesia on the island of Sumatra. It has an area of 632.26 km² and a population of 903,902. Located on the Siak River, which drains to the Strait of Malacca...

. Other major cities includes Dumai
Dumai
Dumai is a city in Riau province on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The city has an area of 1727 km² and has 174,465 inhabitants . Dumai is an important transport and trade centre, both regionally and international ....

, Selat Panjang
Selat Panjang
Selat Panjang is the capital of Kepulauan Meranti Regency, which is part of the province of Riau in Indonesia. Meranti Archipelago Regency is a new regency in Riau province which was established in 2009 and it has been separated from Bengkalis Regency.Tebing Tinggi island is separated by a narrow...

, Bagansiapiapi
Bagansiapiapi
Bagansiapiapi is a small town near Dumai, Riau, Indonesia. The town is the capital of Rokan Hilir Regency in the Riau Province and is located on the east coast of Sumatra, on the Rokan River delta across the strait west of Malacca.-History:The town was originally populated mainly by Chinese...

, Bengkalis
Bengkalis
Bengkalis Regency is a regency of Indonesia in the Riau province. The regency, which comprises the whole Bengkalis island in the Strait of Malacca, has been established since 1956...

, Bangkinang
Bangkinang
Bangkinang is a town in the Indonesian province Riau. It is the capital of Kampar Regency....

, Rengat
Rengat
Rengat is a town in Riau province of Indonesia and it is the capital of Indragiri Hulu Regency.The WWF keeps a conservation forest near the town, but the conservation area is no longer well-protected. Many companies take the nature resources from the forest without legal permit.- External links...

 and Siak Sri Indrapura
Siak Sri Indrapura
Siak Sri Indrapura is a town in Riau province of Indonesia and it is the capital of Siak Regency....

.

Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....

 was based on the Riau version of Malay language
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...

.

Riau is currently one of the richest provinces in Indonesia. This province is rich with natural resources, particularly petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

, natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

, rubber
Rubber
Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...

, palm oil
Palm oil
Palm oil, coconut oil and palm kernel oil are edible plant oils derived from the fruits of palm trees. Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis; palm kernel oil is derived from the kernel of the oil palm and coconut oil is derived from the kernel of the...

 and fiber plantations. However extensive logging lead to massive decline of forest cover from 78% in 1982 to only 33% in 2005.

The Riau Islands were part of Riau province until 2004, when they were made a separate province.

Since 1970s, the majority of Indonesia has been experiencing declining population growth rates. Riau has been a significant exception, with increasing rates every decade since 1970 to 4.35 percent annual rise for the 1990s. The provincial population is 5,543,031 (As of the 2010 census).

Language

Riau is home to various dialects of the Malay and Chinese language. The dominant language used by the Malay population is Riau Malay, on which the national language, Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....

, is based. The Chinese population speaks a Min Nan
Min Nan
The Southern Min languages, or Min Nan , are a family of Chinese languages spoken in southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, and southern Zhejiang provinces of China, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora....

 language known as Riau Hokkien. This language originated in the southern part of Fujian province in the south-eastern part of China.

Riau Indonesian

The dialect of Indonesian spoken in this region is considered by linguists as having one of the least complex grammars among the languages of the world (apart from creoles
Creole language
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...

), possessing neither noun declensions, nor temporal distinctions, nor subject/object distinctions, nor singular/plural distinction. For example, the phrase Ayam makan (lit. 'chicken eat') can mean, in context, anything from 'the chicken is eating', to 'I ate some chicken', 'the chicken that is eating' and 'when we were eating chicken'. A possible reason for this is that Riau Indonesian has been used as a lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...

 for communication between different people in this area during its history, and extensive foreign-language use of this kind tends to simplify the grammar of a language used.

Riau Indonesian served as a basis for the modern national language, Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....

, which however has extensive additional influence from Javanese
Javanese language
Javanese language is the language of the Javanese people from the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java...

, Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

, Arabic, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, among others.

Cities and Regencies

  • Pekanbaru
    Pekanbaru
    Pekanbaru is the capital of Riau, a province in Indonesia on the island of Sumatra. It has an area of 632.26 km² and a population of 903,902. Located on the Siak River, which drains to the Strait of Malacca...

     City
  • Dumai
    Dumai
    Dumai is a city in Riau province on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The city has an area of 1727 km² and has 174,465 inhabitants . Dumai is an important transport and trade centre, both regionally and international ....

     City
  • Rokan Hilir
    Rokan Hilir
    Rokan Hilir is a regency of Riau, Indonesia. It has an area of 8,941 km² and population of 349,771.Bagansiapiapi is the capital of Rokan Hilir regency.The regency is divided into 13 subdistricts ....

     Regency
  • Rokan Hulu
    Rokan Hulu
    Rokan Hulu is a regency of Riau, Indonesia. It has an area of 7224.6 km².The regency is divided into 12 subdistricts . The seat of the regency is located at Pasir Pengaraian....

     Regency
  • Siak
    Siak Regency
    Siak is a regency of Riau, Indonesia. It has an area of 8,556.09 km² and population of 312,536 .The regency is divided into 13 subdistricts . The seat of the regency is located at Siak Sri Indrapura.Bordered with:...

     Regency
  • Indragiri Hilir
    Indragiri Hilir
    Indragiri Hilir is a regency of Riau, Indonesia. It has an area of 11,605.97 km² and population of 624,450.The regency is divided into 17 subdistricts . The seat of the regency is located at Tembilahan.- External links :...

     Regency
  • Indragiri Hulu
    Indragiri Hulu Regency
    Indragiri Hulu is a regency of Riau, Indonesia. It has an area of 15,854.29 km² and population of about 450,000.The regency is divided into 8 subdistricts . The seat of the regency is located at Rengat....

     Regency
  • Pelalawan
    Pelalawan
    Pelalawan is a regency of Riau, Indonesia. It has an area of 12,647.29 km² and population of 150,609.The regency is divided into 10 subdistricts . The seat of the regency is located at Pangkalan Kerinci....

     Regency
  • Kampar
    Kampar Regency
    Kampar is a regency of Riau, Indonesia. It has an area of 11,707.64 km² and population of about 415,344.The regency is divided into 13 subdistricts . The seat of the regency is located at Bangkinang.Bordered with:...

     Regency
  • Bengkalis Regency
  • Kuantan Singingi
    Kuantan Singingi
    Kuantan Singingi is a regency of Riau, Indonesia. It has an area of 7,656 km² and population of 215,114.The regency is divided into 12 subdistricts . The seat of the regency is located at Teluk Kuantan....

     Regency
  • Meranti Islands Regency

Economy

The economy of Riau expanded faster (8.66% in 2006) than the Indonesian average (6.04% in 2006). Largely a resource-based economy, including crude oil (600,000 bpd), palm oil and other forest products. Local government income benefits from a greater share of revenue of tax (mainly crude oil) due to the decentralization law in 2004.

Ecology

Riau's forest area is 8 million ha.
Giam Siak Small Biosphere Reserves - Bukit Batu Riau (CG-GSK-BB) is an awareness of Riau on the environment and natural

Biosphere Reserves Giam Siak Small-Bukit Batu Riau for the World Natural Heritage
Giam Siak Small Biosphere Reserves - Bukit Batu Riau (CG-GSK-BB) is one of seven Biosphere Reserve in Indonesia. Located in two areas of government that is Bengkalis and Siak in Riau Province. CG-GSK-BB Riau set in session 21st Session of the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Proggramme UNESCO in Jeju, South Korea, May 26, 2009. CG-GSK-BB is one of 22 locations of the proposed 17 countries are accepted as a biosphere reserve in that year. Biosphere Reserve is the only concept of environmental conservation and cultivation of internationally recognized. Thus, supervision and development will be a worldwide concern over the region.

CG-GSK-BB to be typical for Peat Swamp Forest is second to none in this world, quite different peculiar to the Forest Peat Kampar Peninsula (with a little swamp). Another peculiarity is the CG-GSK-BB is initiated by private parties who cooperate with the government through BBKSDA (Center for Conservation of Natural Resources). In this area, the name of the Sinar Mas Group improved enough since this is the group of companies that initiate from a private party.
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