Vice President Asks West Sulawesi To Help The New Capital

Representative of the Republic of Indonesia, Ma'ruf Amin. (Photo: Twitter @Kiyai_MarufAmin)

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin asked the West Sulawesi provincial government to prepare itself as a buffer area for the new capital city to be established in East Kalimantan.

"Later (the capital) will move to Kalimantan, and West Sulawesi Province has a strategic position to support the country's capital city," said West Sulawesi Provincial Secretary Muhammad Idris after meeting Vice President Ma'ruf at the Vice President's Office, Jakarta, Thursday 26 December.

According to Idris, his party needs assistance from the central government to build infrastructure in West Sulawesi, such as national roads, ports and airports.

Idris explained that the Vice President encouraged the province of West Sulawesi to manage the upstream sector industry. The upstream industry can process raw materials, namely chocolate, coffee and fishery and agricultural products.

"There the accumulative agriculture, cocoa plantations, as well as oil palm and livestock, including it, will be a strategic force to be fought for in West Sulawesi and the Vice President along with his ranks will pay attention to West Sulawesi Province in this regard," he explained. Idris.

West Sulawesi Governor Ali Baal Masdar has met with Vice President Ma'ruf to discuss infrastructure development plans in the region. The provincial government also proposes efforts to develop national road access infrastructure to strengthen regional growth.

In addition, it is also proposed to build an airport in Polewali Mandar Regency to support accessibility to the West Sulawesi region in the south. Economic activity in the region is high and Idris hopes that air connections can be built better.

Responding to this, Idris explained, the Vice President gave his support to accelerate the growth of West Sulawesi. The desire to increase the capacity of Tanjung Silopo Port as a gateway for a number of Indonesian immigrant workers from Malaysia was also submitted to the Vice President.

As is well known, the government is building a new government capital city which is located between Penajam Paser Utara Regency and Kutai Kartanegara Regency in East Kalimantan Province.