National Development Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro has said the Indonesian government this year targeted to complete the verification of projects that would be financed with the blended finance program so that the projects could be implemented next year.

“The study on the projects is targeted to be completed this year so that they can be implemented next year,” Bambang said in Jakarta on Monday as reported by kontan.co.id.

Bambang, who is also head of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), said project categories that could be funded with a blended finance program depended on the source of the funds.

The economic-oriented projects could be funded by a blended finance program whose combined financial sources come from the state budget and non-state budget funds, while the social-oriented projects could be funded with a combination of state budget funds and grants.

Bambang said the blended finance program projects are related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He said the government was also now mapping out philanthropic funds, particularly from domestic sources, that could be combined with the state budget to finance certain social projects.

Meanwhile, Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) economist Bhima Yudhistira said data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed that from 2000 to 2016, there were 167 projects in all over the globe that were financed with the blended finance program, involving US$31 billion of funds. (bbn)