Jakarta, June 5 (Antara) - The government will expedite the development
of 10 priority infrastructure projects to accelerate economic
development and support the efforts to improve the people's welfare.
President Joko Widodo in a limited cabinet meeting on the acceleration
of infrastructure projects on Tuesday, last week, ordered to simplify
the implementation process of infrastructure projects, so that they
could be executed easily, and the people's expectations on
infrastructure development could be realized.
"If the current process is maintained, it will take time to implement
the infrastructure projects. The implementation process of the
infrastructure projects must be simplified, so that they will bear
results soon," the president noted.
He
cited the example of the development of Jakarta's Mass Rapid Transit
(MRT) system, which has taken a long time during the planning, funding,
and construction phases.
"The
preparation phase has taken too long, and decisions were not taken
soon. The MRT has been planned since 26 years," the president stated.
Joko
Widodo remarked that after the planning phase, there are other phases
to be carried out such as the feasibility study, bluebook, environmental
impact analysis, financing sources, and organization setting.
The
president expressed the need to prioritize the development of
infrastructure such as roads, transportation, ports, and the electricity
sector.
Therefore,
the government has identified 10 priority infrastructure development
projects that must be implemented this year. The ten projects are in the
areas of electricity, clean water facilities, toll roads, railways, and
airports.
In
order to accelerate their implementation, the infrastructure projects
will be directly supervised by several institutions.
Minister
for National Development Planning/Head of the National Development
Planning (PPN/Bappenas) Board Andrinof Achir Chaniago stated that the
progress of these projects will be evaluated and formulated every three
months to ensure that they are running in accordance with the plan.
Chaniago noted that his ministry, the office of the presidential staff,
the Government's Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP), and the
Cabinet Secretariat will set up a joint team to monitor and evaluate the
progress of infrastructure projects.
"The
monitoring and evaluation will be conducted to know whether the
projects are facing problems," affirmed the minister. Strict supervision
will be carried out to ensure success in infrastructure development,
which has been sluggish over the past few years.
The ten infrastructure projects whose development must commence this
year are the Bontang oil refinery plant in East Kalimantan, the Batan
steam power generating plants in Central Java, the clean water project
in West Semarang (Central Java), the Trans-Sumatra toll road, the
Balik-Papan toll road in East Kalimantan, the East Kalimantan railway
project, the Soekarno-Hatta express railway project in Jakarta, the 500
KV power transmission network in Sumatra, the Sumatra-Java high-voltage
direct current power transmission network, and the revitalization of
three airports in Lampung (Sumatra), Palu (Central Sulawesi), and Labuan
Bajo in East Nusa Tenggara.
In
order to support the accelerated development of the projects, the
government is also drafting a Presidential Instruction, which will
protect the state officials in charge of infrastructure projects from
being criminalized.
PPN
Ministry's Deputy for Infrastructure and Facility Affairs Dedy S.
Priatna stated that the Presidential Instruction should be issued to
ensure that the officials handling infrastructure projects will feel
secure while implementing a policy on accelerating infrastructure
development as far as they do not violate the law.
Priatna
said that the government is concerned that the officials are hesitant
to implement a policy on the acceleration of infrastructure development
such as taking decisions on directly appointing companies to implement
the projects.
The
officials are concerned that a direct appointment or other policies on
project acceleration would be questioned by law enforcers.
"What is important is that the officials do not commit corruption. If
they are corrupt, they can just be arrested," remarked Priatna.
A
regulation on the direct appointment of a company for an infrastructure
project has also been issued through Presidential Instruction No.
38/2015 on cooperation between the government and businesses in
infrastructure project development.
In
the meantime, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin)
noted on Thursday that the construction of infrastructure projects
needed huge amounts of funds.
In order to carry out infrastructure development in the coming five
years, the government will need funds worth Rp5,510 trillion while its
budget is only estimated at Rp1,178 trillion for the five-year term.
Thus,
there is a gap of about Rp4,341 trillion. Hence, the government is
optimistic that the private sector would play an active role in
infrastructure development.
According to Rosan P. Roeslani of the Kadin, funds set aside for
infrastructure development in Indonesia are relatively small.
"Around Rp5,510 trillion is needed to carry out the development of
infrastructure projects, but the available sources of funds are limited
and fall short of the requirement," Roeslani informed reporters on
Thursday.
Only funds worth around Rp1,178 trillion have been
set aside in the state budget in the coming five years despite
potentially unused budget funds of around Rp100 trillion.
He
pointed out that a wide gap of around Rp4,341 trillion still exists
between the funds from the state budget and the investment requirement.
Therefore, the government has to seek non-budget funds to finance
infrastructure projects. ***3***
(TA014/INE/o001)
EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/O. Tamindael) 05-06-2015 12:34 |
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