The Claim Of The Budget To Build 40 Cities At The Level Of Jakarta Makes Sense, Cak Imin: IDR 5 Trillion River 40 A Year Only IDR 200 Trillion

Vice Presidential Candidate number 1, Muhaimin Iskandar alias Cak Imin. (Diah-VOI)

Vice Presidential Candidate (cawapres) number 1, Muhaimin Iskandar claims to have calculated the composition of the 40 city development budget to the level of Jakarta if he wins the 2024 presidential election with presidential candidate Anies Baswedan.

Cak Imin said that there would be an allocation of a development budget of IDR 5 trillion for one city every year. According to him, the state budget is still sufficient to meet the development needs.

"If (development) 40 cities, (each city) is IDR 5 trillion a year, that's good. We have calculated, if 5 trillion times 40 cities, it's only IDR 200 trillion," said Cak Imin in Tangerang, Banten, Wednesday, December 27.

To make this happen, Cak Imin said it was necessary to evaluate the value of investment into the state budget for development. This development can be started with improving the transportation system, providing clean water, to improving health services.

"40 of these cities will be pushed to become developed cities to be like Jakarta, a clean water process, public transportation. Public transportation can be trains, can be buses, in Surabaya, Sidoarjo, Malang, Palu, Makasar, Medan, integrated. Drinking water, electricity, health and recreation facilities, it must be (refined)," he explained.

Cak Imin's explanation was in response to the comments of the vice presidential candidate number 3, Mahfud MD, who admitted that he was surprised by his statement regarding his desire to build 40 cities at the level of Jakarta.

Mahfud asked whether the construction of 40 metropolitan cities could be achieved in just 5 years according to the President and Vice President's period.

"I am a bit surprised that I also want to build 40 cities at the level of Jakarta. Yes, can you hold it for 5 years as President and Vice President? How many cities in 5 years?" asked Mahfud in the second debate of the 2024 presidential election specifically for vice presidential candidates at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC), Senayan, Central Jakarta, Friday, 22 December

Mahfud also compared it with the construction of one metropolity city, namely the capital city of the archipelago (IKN). Where, its implementation takes quite a long time.

"Ini IKN saja sudah puluhan tahun baru dilaksanakan, itu pun yang investasi baru dalam bentuk janji. Belum ada yang melaksanakan, nah gitukan," tandasnya.