The materialisation of infrastructure development in the country shows the success of recent infrastructure development. This can also be made an asset for the next infrastructure development. Such success has raised Indonesia’s infrastructure development index from 72 to 60 between 2016-2017 in Asia.
"For me, the current development can be made the capital for building the next infrastructure development," said Public Works and Public Housing Minister, Dr. Ir. M. Basuki Hadimuljono, M.Sc., in the Seminar titled Indonesia’s Infrastructure Development to Support Economic Development in the UGM Senate Hall on Monday (17/7).
According to Minister Basuki, despite ongoing progresses, infrastructure development in Indonesia has faced many challenges, particularly the disparity between developments in Java and outside, East and West, rural and urban, and the poor and the haves.
He said to build the infrastructure required as much as IDR4,700 trillion while his ministry alone would need 1,900 trillion.
"Obviously, that huge amount cannot be paid by the State Budget alone from taxes and debts. That’s why we need to invite state owned enterprises and private sectors to get involved in it,” he said.
Reportedly, in 2016 and 2017, infrastructure development that has materialised into being include roads, irrigation, airports, railways, sanitation, clean water, bridges, dams, housing, and seaports. The Ministry is now prioritising five infrastructure development, namely transportation, water resources, communication, energy, and housing.
"To make it easier, we divided Indonesia into 35 regions of work. This is done to remove the disparity between territorial regions so that the development is not centred on Java and Sumatra only, but spreading to other regions,” he added.
The seminar is a joint work between Financial Auditing Agency (BPK), Public Works and Public Housing Ministry, and UGM. Speakers attending the event were Prof. Dr. H. Rizal Djalil (BPK), Prof. Mardyasmo, Ph.D (Deputy Finance Minister), and A. Tony Prasetiantono, Ph.D (Economist).
Prof. Dr. H. Rizal Djalil considered that the most important thing of infrastructure development was that it can be enjoyed by the grassroots level, because the majority of Indonesian people is still of low income.
Rector of UGM, Prof. Ir. Panut Mulyono, M.Eng., D.Eng., said many groups should support the government that is currently focusing on massive infrastructure development such as the construction of roads, seaports, airports, railways, etc. This is because such construction will impact the economic development of everyone.
"Even so, we still have to make developments in other sectors, no less important is the development of human resource and research and development," he said.