Pekanbaru, city in western Indonesia, in the center of the island of Sumatra. Located on the Siak River, which drains to the Strait of Malacca, Pekanbaru is the capital of Riau Province, which has the highest per capita income in Indonesia. Almost half of Indonesia's petroleum is produced in Riau, and much of Pekanbaru's economy is based on the petroleum industry. The city is connected by road to an oil refining and exporting port at Dumai, on the Selat Rupat, an inlet of the Strait of Malacca. Many facilities in Pekanbaru, including an airport, stadium, swimming pool, and the road to Dumai, were partially financed by oil companies working in the area.
A settlement has existed on the site of modern Pekanbaru since the 17th century. In the late 19th century, the city developed to serve the coffee and coal industries, and the Dutch built roads to help ship goods to Singapore and Malacca (now Melaka). After oil was discovered in the region in the 1930s, Pekanbaru's economy has depended heavily on oil revenues. During the 1980s, Pekanbaru's population grew at a rate of 6 percent per year, about twice the national average. In 1990 the city had a population of 341,000, compared with 71,000 in 1961. By the 1990s, Pekanbaru's cost of living, including the cost of staples such as rice, was among the highest in Indonesia. Population (1997) 481,781.
