Immediately Retired, Minister Basuki Orders Infrastructure Development In Eastern Indonesia To Be Prioritized

PUPR Minister Basuki Hadimuljono. (Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Basuki Hadimuljono will soon retire in October 2024.

He also advised the Prabowo Subianto government cabinet to prioritize infrastructure development in Eastern Indonesia.

"I think (first) in the eastern part, it still needs to be investment in infrastructure development," said Basuki when met by reporters at his office, Friday, October 4.

If pulled back or from a historical perspective, Basuki said, the availability of infrastructure in western Indonesia is partly a relic of the colonial era.

So that what the government does is to carry out rehabilitation only.

"If I study in this western part of Indonesia, especially Java and Sumatra, the infrastructure already exists from the relics of the Dutch and Japanese era. So, what we are doing now is a lot for maintenance and improvement," he said.

Meanwhile, conditions are different from the eastern part of Indonesia, which is very minimal or even no relic infrastructure is capable of being developed. As a result, the government must be present to build infrastructure from scratch.

For example, said Basuki, the road network on the north coast of Java, aka Pantura, was built for the first time during the reign of Herman Willem Daendels, namely a Dutch official who was then in Indonesia.

Thus, the post-independence government only needs to develop road networks that have been built previously.

"However, in eastern Indonesia there is no relic compared to Java and Sumatra. We in eastern Indonesia have built a lot of new buildings. In my opinion, it is like roads and dams, there is still a lot of need," he said.