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Jokowi pledges help for youth to buy houses as election nears
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (second left), accompanied by First Lady Iriana Joko Widodo (left), talks to Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono (right), Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung (second right) and State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno as they travel on a bus along the toll road from Surabaya to Kendal in Central Java on Dec. 20. (Antara/Puspa Perwitasari)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has vowed to help young Indonesians buy homes for themselves as the government pushes to get more houses built across the country.
The envisioned policy would reduce the minimum down payment and lower the interest rate for mortgages on new houses for certain buyers, the President said in a televised speech on Sunday afternoon.
“It will be easier for young families to get their own residence, because [the financial facility] will be subsidized from the state budget,” Jokowi said, as quoted by news agency Antara.
The promise comes as the 2019 presidential election draws near, prompting speculation that it was aimed at luring young voters.
The millennial generation, roughly defined as those born between 1980 and 2000, is considered a strategic voting bloc that makes up as much as 40 percent of the electorate.
Both the Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin candidate pair and the rival camp of Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno have been trying to win over the youth since the campaign period began last September.
On Sunday, Jokowi said his administration had been intensifying the construction of new houses across the country, because many young people had yet to have homes of their own. The President claimed that around 1 million new houses had been completed since 2014.
Jokowi also highlighted his administration’s achievement in building new infrastructure across the country, such as 789 kilometers of toll roads, 10 new airports and even more seaports.
“Also, we now have more than 3,000 km of roads in the country’s border areas, such as in Papua, which shares a border with Papua New Guinea, in Kalimantan, which shares a border with Malaysia, as well as the area bordering Timor Leste,” Jokowi said. (kuk/ipa)
