Agrarian and Spatial Affairs Minister plans to employ thousands of licensed cadaster surveyor to accelerate data collection and issuance of land certificates. This year the government has targeted to issue some 5 million certificates to be issued. “This year we target to issue as high as 5 million land certificates,” said Minister for Agrarian and Spatial Affairs, Dr. Sofyan A. Djalil, in a speech read out by Director General fo Agrarian Infrastructure, Adi Darmawan, delivering keynote speech in the seminar Implementation of Policy on Cadaster Surveyors at Faculty of Engineering UGM on Wednesday (24/5).
The Minister said employment of such skilled workers were based on Ministerial regulation in which the Ministry would employ as many professional manpower as possible for mapping, survey, and certification of lands. “We admit that our target is huge, so it has to be measured and compiled together,” he said.
According to Minister Sofyan Djalil, currently there were 125 million plots of lands with just 44 million (41 percent) having been registered, outside forest areas. Of the 44 million, only 20 million have been plotted. “We lack of surveyors and manpower whereas we want to increase the gini ratio for land ownership,” said he.
The presence of such professional manpower, in his opinion, will help the Ministry to issue land certificate quicker and succeed the agrarian reforms. “Our task is to do asset legalisation, certification and reform,” he said.
Data processing and land certification, according to the Minister, help smooth the progress of development that has been launched. The success will rely on the process of land provision.
“We will help the government for the process of provision of land to develop power plant of 35 thousand megawatts, construction of 7,338 km of toll roads, and 5 million of homes for low income community,” he said.
Dean of Faculty of Engineering UGM, Prof. Ir. Panut Mulyono, M.Eng., D.Eng, agrees that to do land mapping and certification would require a large number of surveyors, but they also have to meet required standards and quality. He said local surveyors were more prioritised. “For the need of surveyors, I think we would prioritise our own manpower instead of those from outside because this task is very important and confidential,” he said.