T

he National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) says the government will expedite the construction of transportation facilities to support the development of 13 integrated industrial estates in areas outside Java.

'€œOur priorities are connecting the industrial estates with seaports and railway facilities,'€ Bappenas transportation director Bambang Prihartono said on Thursday.

'€œBoth sectors will take the largest portions of the budget, Rp 10 trillion (US$768.29 million) for railway and Rp 17 trillion for seaport projects within the next five years,'€ Bambang added.

The seaports to be developed are Kuala Tanjung in North Sumatra, Tanjung Perak in East Java, Pontianak in West Kalimantan, Bitung in North Sulawesi, Makassar in South Sulawesi, Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan, Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara and Halmahera in North Maluku.

Meanwhile, the railway projects are Manado-Bitung (North Sulawesi), Sei Mangke-Bandar Tinggi-Kuala Tanjung (North Sumatra) and Pasoso-Tanjung Priok (Jakarta).

'€œWe are still designing the railway projects, but we are optimistic that we'€™ll be able to commence construction of all the railway projects in 2016,'€ Bambang said.

The government will allocate Rp 55.45 trillion for total basic infrastructure, including roads and power plant development, in the areas over the period of 2015-2019, according to Bambang. One of the ongoing infrastructure projects, Bambang said, was the Manado-Bitung toll road in North Sulawesi.

The government will also develop several airports, including Kupang and Palu (Central Sulawesi), he said, adding that the budget allocated for airport development would reach Rp 8.2 trillion within the next five years.

Bambang said that the recent signing of Presidential Decree No. 30/2015, which applies Law No.2/2012 on land procurement for public infrastructure, would hopefully support the acceleration of land procurement amid the government'€™s ambitious infrastructure projects.

One of the amendments to the new decree is that the government will allow the private sector to finance land acquisition to speed up the process, instead of waiting for state budget disbursement, which can be time consuming, to help fund the projects. The government will then reimburse the spending if obliged to do so.

'€œEven though we now have the law, land acquisition acceleration would still require commitment and assistance from regional administrations,'€ he said.

The industrial estates, covering a total area of 22,484 hectares, are expected to provide 930,000 jobs.

Of the 13 estates to be developed, the government will develop three locations '€” Palu in Central Sulawesi (Rp 12.5 trillion), Bitung in North Sulawesi (Rp 2.5 trillion) and Kuala Tanjung in North Sumatra (Rp 4.5 trillion) '€” while the rest will be built by the private sector.

There are currently 74 industrial estates in the entire country, occupying 36,295.5 hectares. According to ministry data, 50 such centers are situated in Java, comprising 26,127.4 hectares or 71.9 percent of the total area of all industrial estates combined.