Wikipedia
Batam refers to both an island, municipality (an Indonesian kotamadya), the largest city in the Riau Islands Province of Indonesia, across the Strait of Singapore, the third-largest city in Sumatra region after Medan and Palembang, and the eighth-largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta Raya, Surabaya, Bandung, Medan, Semarang, Makassar, and Palembang.
Batam is an industrial boomtown, an emerging transport hub, and part of a free trade zone the Indonesia–Malaysia–Singapore Growth Triangle, located off Singapore's south coast. The 715-km (276-mi) island, is now slightly smaller than Singapore (due to reclamation work in Singapore), and is the core part of the municipality of Batam, of which 450 km is classified as urban. Batam's 2,200 km municipality (administratively) covers a number of scattered islands and islets, with Galang and Rempang islands to the immediate south connected to Batam by short bridges, collectively called Barelang. These two islands maintain their rural character. Bulan Island is also rural. The municipality has a population of 1,035,280 (prediction in May 2015)., also It is the closest part of Indonesia to Singapore, at a minimum land distance of 5.8 km, similar in length to the Transbay Tube. According to the 2010 national Census, Batam is the fastest-growing municipality in Indonesia, with a population growth rate of 11% per year.