Eastern Indonesia

Eastern Indonesia (or East Indonesia) is one of the two main geographical regions of Indonesia, the other being Western Indonesia. Eastern Indonesia spans across the Banda and Maluku Seas in the west, the Arafura and Timor Seas in the south, and the Halmahera Sea in the north. It comprises the archipelagic territory of Tanimbar, Banda, Maluku, Halmahera, Raja Ampat, Biak, and Western New Guinea. Central Indonesian Time and Eastern Indonesia Time are the national standard time designated for Eastern Indonesia; it falls within the UTC+8 and UTC+9 time zone, respectively.

Eastern Indonesia borders Southern Philippines in the Northwest, Palau in the North, Western Papua New Guinea in the East, and Northern Australia in the South.

History and background
During the last stages of the Dutch colonial era, the area east of Java and Kalimantan was known as the Great East and later known as Eastern Indonesia. After Denpasar Conference, on 24 December 1946, the State of East Indonesia was formed covering the same area, excluding Western New Guinea, previously included during Malino Conference. It was a component of the United States of Indonesia, and was dissolved into the unitary Republic of Indonesia in 17 August 1950. Currently, Eastern Indonesia consists of 17 provinces: Bali, East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, Central Sulawesi, Gorontalo, North Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, Maluku, North Maluku, Central Papua, Highland Papua, Papua, South Papua, Southwest Papua, and West Papua.

Climate
In Eastern Indonesia, the days are generally dry and sunny from October through March with the warm tropical rain season occurring between May and August; temperatures are typically in the 27 C to 30 C range throughout the year.

Administration
Administratively, Eastern Indonesia consists of four main geographical units, namely the Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, Maluku Islands and Papua.

Economy
Seaweed farming has traditionally been a common commercial activity along the coasts of Eastern Indonesia; however, in the 2020s climate change in Indonesia has been causing seaweed farmers in Eastern Indonesia to lose revenue and harvests. In the consumer shopping industry, Eastern Indonesia experienced a rapid increase in online shopping in the 2020s, with overall transactions in the region doubling from 2020 to 2021; this growth has been led by Indonesian e-commerce company Tokopedia, with the top product types sold in the region being health and beauty, fashion, food and beverage, and electronics.

Largest cities
The following are the four largest cities in Eastern Indonesia by population: