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Government tries to reach toll road development target
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An aerial view shows the development of a toll road connecting the North Sumatra capital of Medan to Tebing Tinggi in this undated photograph. (Antara/Irsan Mulyadi)
W
ith only a year left of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo's term in office, the government is trying to reach its target of developing 1,852 kilometers of toll road to improve transportation access across the country.
Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said on Sunday in Cirebon, West Java, that the government would continue with the infrastructure development projects in its effort to improve the country’s competitiveness.
The new, smoother roads would significantly cut export logistics costs, Basuki said, which were higher than those in neighboring countries like Malaysia and Thailand, thus making Indonesian exports less competitive than the exports of these two countries.
“So infrastructure development is to improve competitiveness. […] Infrastructure will cut logistics costs,” said Basuki as quoted by tempo.co.
Apart from developing toll roads, the government was also building 2,650 kilometers of non-toll roads and 30 kilometers of bridges, he said, adding that exports and investment were expected to contribute significantly to economic growth.
Therefore, he added, exports and import activities needed to be supported by smoother roads to reduce logistics costs.
Basuki also said the infrastructure development project, particularly in eastern Indonesia, would reduce interregional economic disparities, as the majority of current economic activities were focused on western Indonesia and those in the eastern part of the country had been long ignored. (bbn)
Editor's note: The title and the first paragraph of this article have been corrected because of a data error.
We apologize for the error.
