T

he government should improve the dissemination of information on the country’s important infrastructure projects in order to attract more private investors to infrastructure development.

Infrastructure financing company Indonesia Infrastructure Finance (IIF) managing director and investment officer Harold Tjiptadjaja said in Jakarta on Friday that many investors who were interested in infrastructure projects, still faced difficulties obtaining data related to priority projects.

Harold said one of the problems was that the Committee of Priority Infrastructure Development Acceleration (KPPIP). which oversees priority projects, had not disclosed the “minimum information” about projects considered ready for development.

“There are places to get information, such as ministries like the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry for example. But KPPIP should take over this role,” he said on Friday. Consequently, investors were still in the dark on where to go when they wanted to invest in the country’s projects, Harold added.

Infrastructure development is one of the most important programs of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration in accelerating economic growth.

The government, however, acknowledged that its strategic infrastructure department, the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry, also suffered from a shortfall of funding to finance infrastructure development.

The government has encouraged more private companies to become involve in infrastructure projects through public-private partnership (PPP) schemes.

Meanwhile, the KPPIP, established in 2014, was intended to monitor and expedite the construction of the country’s most strategic infrastructure projects, especially the 30 priority projects. Most of them are to be built under a PPP scheme.

The projects listed as priority projects are those that have an investment value of more than Rp 500 billion (US$38 million). Among the projects in the priority list, which is also part of the 225 national strategic projects is the development of eight segments of the Trans-Sumatra toll road, Kuala Tanjung International Airport, as well as the Palapa Ring broadband network.

The total investment needed is Rp 819.4 trillion. KPPIP itself previously set an ambitious target of seeing the groundbreaking of all 30 projects by 2018.

So far, two major projects, namely the four-decade-delayed regional drinking water system (SPAM) Umbulan in East Java and two 1,000 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plants in Batang, Central Java, have seen progress under the watch of the KPPIP.

KPPIP program director Rainier Haryanto said that it had not disclosed the projects that were the most ready among the 30 strategic infrastructure projects.

“We have not disseminated the information to the public but we have approached to several banks and investment managers,” he said, referring to the banks acting as trustees in the government’s tax amnesty program.

Meanwhile, Public Works and Public Housing Ministry director general for construction Yusid Toyib said that the ministry would also establish a center within the ministry to provide information on the strategic projects within the ministry available for PPP schemes.

“The ministerial instruction [for the center] might be issued next month. So later when, for example, a Chinese investor wants to participate in the project, we can direct them to the Toll Road Regulatory Agency [BPJT], so they’re not confused,” he said.