Riau Islands 4.38

Riau Islands, is a province of Indonesia. It comprises the principal group of the Riau Archipelago along with other island groups to the south, east and northeast. In Indonesian, Riau Islands and Riau Archipelago are synonymous and are distinguished by the word for province, "Provinsi".Originally part of the Riau province, the Riau Islands were split off as a separate province in September 2002.EtymologyThe origin of Riau Islands name comes from the name "Riau". Riau is allegedly derived the word "riuh" which in Malay means crowded. This is because the area of the Riau Islands was once a center of trade and crowd. Then this name developed with the use of the name Riau in the name of the Sultanate of Lingga. In the colonial period, the name Riau was changed to Riouw.After the proclamation of independence, the territory of Riau (Riau Islands today) is united with the Siak Sultanate region in the mainland of Sumatra. Formerly, this is done because the movement Ganyang Malaysia so that facilitate the relationship from the archipelago to the mainland of Sumatra.However, over time, the name Riau is used by the Sultanate of Siak on the mainland of Sumatra, while the Riau Islands is separated. The word "Kepulauan" which means islands are added in front of the word Riau because the region is mostly ocean or island-shaped.The origin of the Riau name also reaps the polemic among Riau and Riau Islands culturalists. Both sides believe that the name of Riau comes from its own province with different historical versions.Geography and ClimateGeographyThe island of Batam, which lies within the central core group of islands (the Riau Archipelago), contains a majority of the province's population. Since becoming part of an economic zone with Singapore in 2006, it has experienced high population growth rates. Other highly populated islands in the Riau Archipelago include Bintan and Karimun, while the archipelago also includes islands such as Bulan and Kundur. There are around 3,200 islands in the province, which has its capital at Tanjung Pinang in the south of Bintan Island.