Analysts: Indonesia Needs Infrastructure Mega Projects

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Sinthya Roesly, president director of government-sponsored infrastructure financing agency PT Penjaminan Infrastruktur Indonesia (PII), said that the issues related to infrastructures would be the priority by the next government. However, Synthya said human resources in infrastructure sector were hard to find.

"The number of knowledge centers related to infrastructure is very limited in Indonesia," Sinthya said.

In the regional autonomy era, human resources with academic qualifications and strong experiences in infrastructure are needed since many big projects are stalled due to weak planning.

"Therefore, we hope that universities would be actively involved in preparing human resources who understand about infrastructure issues. [President-elect] Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo is not only planning to build underwater toll roads, he also planned [on building] railways, power plants and other megaprojects," Sinthya explained.        

South Sulawesi Young Entrepreneurs Association chairman Amirullah Abbas said Jokowi's future policies as the president should be well-guarded since budgets from the central government for infrastructure development in regions are often poorly distributed.

"Take the 10-kilometer road construction for example. The budget was disbursed each year only for [the construction of] two kilometers. That means, before the construction is done, the previously constructed roads were already broken," Amirullah said.

MUHAMMAD YUNUS