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Land acquisition issues continue to hinder strategic projects
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This aerial photograph shows development of the toll road connecting North Sumatra's capital of Medan to the provincial city of Tebing Tinggi. It is part of a national strategic project being developed by the central government. (Antara/Irsan Mulyadi)
Land acquisition issues still seem to make up the bulk of problems that hinder strategic project development across the nation.
Acting North Sumatra governor Tengku Erry Nuradi confirmed that the province had experienced speed bumps in land acquisition and in procuring forest land.
"There are still some issues with land acquisition, and also with forest land that turned out to be inhabited by people," he said following a closed-door meeting at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Thursday.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo held two closed-door meetings to discuss the progress of strategic projects in North Sumatra and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).
(Read also: Jokowi wants North Sumatra to become international hub)
The government has been revising its list of strategic national projects, adding an additional 44 projects worth Rp 1,098 trillion (US$82.4 billion) in the latest revision of Presidential Regulation No. 3/2016.
The original regulation contained 225 strategic national projects and one electricity procurement project with total investment of Rp 2,826 trillion. Since then, 20 projects have been completed while 18 others were erased from the initial list, leaving the remaining 187 projects needing investment of Rp 2,740 trillion.
Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister Sofyan Djalil acknowledged that land acquisition problems remained an issue. Furthermore, he said that the government was currently preparing a Presidential Instruction to tackle the issue.
"Forests that have been inhabited by people will be released to citizens as part of our agrarian reform," he said, adding that compensation would be paid as it would no longer be considered forest land. (bbn)
