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View all search resultsGovt launches border area development program
The launch of a development program for the country's outlying regions is a step in the right direction, but experts wonder if it will amount to more than a symbolic gesture.
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T
wo Cabinet ministers recently visited Indonesia’s northernmost regency in a show of the government’s commitment to maintaining territorial integrity and developing the economies of outlying regions, but experts say its commitment in the long term remains to be seen.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud M.D. and Home Minister Tito Karnavian on Tuesday visited Miangas Island, the northernmost island in Talaud Islands regency, North Sulawesi, whose waters extend to the maritime border Indonesia shares with the Philippines.
The ministers’ visit was part of the launch event for the 2022 Border Area Integrated Development Movement (Gerbangdutas) of the National Border Management Agency (BNPP).
The Talaud Islands is made up of 17 islands, but only seven are inhabited. The regency’s administrative center is located in Melonguane district on Karakelang Island, the largest in the island chain.
Mahfud said that developing outlying areas was part of the government’s effort to assert Indonesia’s territorial sovereignty and to protect its citizens as mandated by the Constitution.
“Here we are reiterating, symbolically, that we are a sovereign nation. Do not play with Indonesia’s borders,” Mahfud said at the launch event.
He added that the government was committed to developing the country’s outlying areas as mandated by the 2008 law on territorial regions, which also stipulated the formation of a special body to manage outlying development areas, currently delegated to the BNPP.
