TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Jokowi has done his best in eastern Indonesia
Change Size
Powering Papua: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (second right), Papua Governor Lukas Enember (second left), State-owned Enterprises Minister Rini M. Soemarno (right) and PLN president director Sofyan Basri push a button, marking the start of the construction of six power plant projects in Papua and West Papua. (JP/Nethy Dharma Somba)
I
n the 2016-2017 Global Competitiveness Report, Indonesia ranks 60th of 138 countries for infrastructure. One of the factors dragging the country down is poor infrastructure development in eastern Indonesia, which consists of relatively poor territories, namely Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Timor, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua.
The majority of disadvantaged villages in Indonesia, which number around 39,000 or 52 percent of the total, are located in these territories. Therefore, eastern Indonesia has so far only been able to contribute 20 percent to national economic growth.
This is why, since the beginning of his term in office in 2014, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo promised to build 225 priority infrastructures, especially in eastern Indonesia, such as 1,000 kilometers of roads, 24 piers, 35,000 megawatts of power plant capacity, 33 dams, 29.8 km of bridges, airports and internet networks.
In addition, since 2015, Jokowi has rolled out village funds, largely used for infrastructure development in rural areas, especially in eastern Indonesia.
Village funds under Jokowi’s leadership increased every year, from Rp 20.67 trillion (US$1.44 million) in 2015 to Rp 46.98 trillion in 2016), Rp 60 trillion in 2017 and 2018 and Rp 70 trillion in 2019.
However, the infrastructure projects have produced an ambiguous impact. On the one hand, Jokowi’s infrastructure development has improved welfare in eastern Indonesia.
In East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and Papua, for example, highways have increased rural and urban connectivity. Rural communities can sell their agricultural products to cities and buy industrial products from the cities.
