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More than half of strategic projects remain in doldrums
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (center), accompanied by Industry Minister Saleh Husin (right) and Creative Economy Agency head Triawan Munaf, discusses with Indonesian creative economy business players at the State Palace in Jakarta recently. (Tempo/-)
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ix months after the issuance of a regulation aimed at fast-tracking hundreds of infrastructure projects, more than half of the projects remain stranded at the planning stage, with only 88 projects under way.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has urged his ministers to speed up the national strategic projects, which are divided into 13 sectors across the archipelago, with a focus on ensuring their implementation.
"After six months, I have been informed that 139 of the 225 projects, or 56 percent, are still in the planning phase. Only 88 projects or 44 percent are in the implementation phase," he said at a limited meeting held at the Presidential Office in Jakarta on Monday.
Therefore, he urged the Coordinating Economic Ministry, the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) and the Presidential Office to keep on monitoring the projects.
Constrains in implementation, he said, must be recognized immediately, including financing and land acquisition problems. "We have to make sure the projects are implemented," he stressed.
Earlier this year, the President issued a presidential regulation on the acceleration of the implementation of national strategic projects. The regulation stipulates provisions in regards to issues including licensing, non-licensing, land procurement and domestic components.
Specific to licensing and non-licensing, the Investment Coordinating Board’s (BKPM) One-Stop Integrated Service must issue all licenses and non-licenses within five days after a complete application is received.
The regulation also listed 225 priority infrastructure projects divided into several categories: toll road, non-toll road, facilities for inter-city trains, inner-city train infrastructure, airports revitalization, new airport development, seaports and the construction of a million houses.
In the energy sector, the prioritized infrastructure projects are oil refinery projects, gas pipelines and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) terminals, as well as smelter facilities.
The government also includes electricity infrastructure projects as national strategic project, along with drinking water facilities, waste management, broadband technology and tourism. (ags)
