Indonesia develops 4yr infrastructure plan

Indonesia develops 4yr infrastructure plan
By Zoe Samios


Indonesia is counting on Spanish companies to help it carry out a four-year strategic plan aimed at improving infrastructure, the director-general of the Southeast Asian nation’s Transportation Ministry says.

Santoso Eddy Wibowo said his country of 17,504 islands “needs to improve maritime, air and land communications and so we will build 15 new airports and nine will be dedicated to cargo services”.

To adjust maritime communications to the needs of the country, “Indonesia will improve the infrastructure of 24 ports described as strategic,” he told a group of businessmen in Madrid on Monday.

The port of Kuala Tanjung will expand its infrastructure to maximise the profitability of the oil that travels to Japan through the Strait of Malacca, considered an important geopolitical point, Wibowo stressed.

“Improving the internal connections between the various islands that make up the fourth-largest country in the world in terms of population, is another objective of this four-year plan,” he said.

“Indonesia will replace ferries that are more than 25 years old for new ones, and will increase its fleet by 50 units, including water buses, before the end of 2019,” the official said.

Also before the end of this period, “2,650 kilometres of roads will be built and existing roads will be improved,” he said.

Representatives of the Indonesian government encouraged Spanish companies, some of which have been present in Indonesia since 1970, to invest in a country whose gross domestic product grew by 5.8 per cent in 2013.

“This confirms that Indonesia is the most stable economy in the last five years,” former Foreign Minister Nur Hassan Wirajuda said.

Indonesian representatives also tout their country’s political stability, democratic system and plans for reforms to streamline business activities as reasons to invest.

Latest News