KPUPR Is Considered Fast To Realize Budget, Jokowi Asks Other Ministries To Emulate

JAKARTA - Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) appreciates the performance of the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) which is always fast in working on budget realization

"I think the PUPR Ministry is most ahead of the budget realization. In January it must have started, because the contract was before," Jokowi said in his remarks at the Gathering with Infrastructure Activists at the State Palace which was monitored online, Monday, December 4.

Jokowi assessed that the Ministry of PUPR is the ministry that is at the forefront of realizing the budget obtained compared to other ministries.

"The acceleration at the Ministry of PUPR (to realize the budget) is also very good. I see, the Ministry of PUPR always precedes compared to other ministries, always ahead of that which is good," he said.

Therefore, Jokowi emphasized other ministries to imitate the performance of the Ministry of PUPR, namely fast in realizing the budget.

"(The Ministry of PUPR) in January has started immediately, that's what I actually need to emphasize to other ministries to imitate PUPR," he added.

On the same occasion, Jokowi said that the Ministry of PUPR had been working on a lot of infrastructure projects in Indonesia since the 2014-2023 period.

The construction includes dams, irrigation networks, toll roads, houses of a million people, and so on.

According to Jokowi, the infrastructure development that has been carried out by the Ministry of PUPR has so far made Indonesia move up to 51st based on the 2023 IMD Global Competitiveness Index.

"I see that in terms of the infrastructure index, we are indeed still lagging behind in 2014, in the IMD Global Competitiveness Index in the infrastructure sector. We were ranked 54th at the time, but currently we are ranked 51th. That is, it has increased even though it has not jumped," he said.

Despite rising slightly, Jokowi emphasized that even more hard work is needed to improve infrastructure in the country.

"We are working hard in the infrastructure sector, really working hard, changing it seems but once again our global competitiveness increase is still at 51, yes it is up from 54 to 51," he said.

Based on Minister Basuki Hadimuljono's report, Jokowi said that until 2023, the Ministry of PUPR had completed the 42 dam project, 2.143 km of toll roads, irrigation networks for 1.2 million hectares.

In addition, there is the construction of a national road that has reached 5,700 km over the past 9 years, and as many as 8.2 million housing units from the program of a million houses each year.

As well as infrastructure development to support major events in Indonesia, such as the 2018 Asian Games, the G20 Summit, the ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, and the construction of new tourist destinations, for example in Labuan Bajo, Mandalika, and other places.