Indonesia to Build Roads in the Northern Kalimantan Region

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - After careful planning of adopting a thorough electricity program which will be set shortly after Indonesia’s 70th Independence, the government under President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo will construct national roads connecting all borders located in the north Kalimantan area. The building of this infrastructure will remotely give access for other development of constructions in the future to come and also facilitate economic activities in the region.

The Deputy of Ministry for Chairperson of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), Dedy S. Priatna claims that President Jokowi has ordered the local north Kalimantan government to clearly calculate the budget needed for the construction of roads that connect region to region in this particular area.

The 7th Indonesian President asked the deputy to calculate the budget during the Regional Development Planning meeting (Musrenbang) in Tarakan, North Kalimantan that has just been recently held. The road constructed is counted as a road belonging to the nation, not solely possessed by the province.

"Jokowi suggests, while the land is still particularly low in price, design 50 m with 40 m in the middle being emptied. So we are planning to construct in the surroundings. As time passes by, then we can continue on building others in the middle," Dedy said, explaining what Jokowi has instructed him to do earlier, as written on Monday (22/12/2014).

In accordance to the government's recent testimony regarding the building of roads in north Kalimantan, the President will give a deadline of six months for the local government to calculate the final budget needed to finance the construction.

"But the other day, the north Kalimantan government said they need an investment around Rp 40 Trillion for the so- called national road. So, I guess we’ll see what the calculation will be like in 6 months," he added.

Dedy admits how in the region, there is a dire need for newly build access such as roads for the economic activities to run smoothly and effectively. Apart from that, the construction of the roads will positively provoke new investors to invest in the land and the area will gain more profit or revenues.

"We will still build the roads, and we only think about building the national roads. We cant really build specified roads for the provinces becayse some of the populations there are citizens of Malaysia. So we will invest heavily in it," he explained.

Despite the excitement for national road construction, the roads will not be connected to the Special Economic Zone (KEK) as the private sectors are still reconsidering the profits or revenues they will get from investing in that particular area.

"KEK is usually privatised by private sectors, and they will unquestionably calculate and reconsider the profit. Currently at the borders where we will construct, there is no human resource nor employee. So, it is undeniably a long way to KEK. But yes we will construct a new city set by the government. In Java, the newest town set by the government is called Maja, in between BSD and Serang," Dedy Said. (Akp/Tnt)