Minister Of Transportation Budi Karya Tells About The KPBU Process For A Very Long Time: Sometimes We Frustration

Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

Minister of Transportation (Menhub) Budi Karya Sumadi told about the financing process with a cooperation scheme between the government and business entities (KPBU), often frustrating him.

Budi hopes that financing with this scheme will not take more than a year.

"I have a note, the process of KPBU to financial close is once a year and I have repeatedly stated with Mr. Wahid (Managing Director of PT PII) that this is too long, so sometimes we are frustrated," Budi said at the PT PII 13th Anniversary event in Jakarta, online, Wednesday, March 1.

Budi even said that he had been reprimanded by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) because the construction of a project had not been carried out by his party.

"I was reprimanded by the president, really, the project didn't start, 'Sir, this project has not been financially closed', I answered like that, then 'opo kui (financial close)'," said Budi while imitating President Jokowi's statement.

Minister of Transportation Budi added that KPBU is a very supportive scheme for the sustainability of infrastructure development.

He said, for three days in one week, his party always discussed various projects with the KPBU scheme.

He gave an example, such as infrastructure development with the concept of transit-oriented development (TOD) which is the priority of the Ministry of Transportation at this time.

Budi said that the TOD concept can at least increase economic value for a number of sectors.

For example, said Budi, the use of land that was previously unused became an economic source with the TOD concept because of the use of land. "So, we moved all KPBU," he added.

For your information, KPBU is a scheme for providing infrastructure and financing based on cooperation between the government and business entities (privates).

The KPBU scheme is carried out as an effort to continue or start infrastructure development amidst the limited budget owned by each ministry in the country, including one of which is the Ministry of Transportation.

In the KPBU scheme, there are stages of process before reaching financial closing.

Referring to the Kpbu website of the Ministry of Finance, financial closing is a facility provided by the Ministry of Finance to help PJPK prepare a final study of the pre-feasibility study, auction documents, and assist PJPK in KPBU project transactions, to obtain financing from financial close institutions.