TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo recalled the time he initiated the construction of Jakarta’s MRT project in his attendance at a campaign event with 10,000 entrepreneurs in Istora Senayan on Thursday, March 21.

Jokowi asserted there would never be an MRT in Indonesia’s capital if the decision was based on economic profit or loss.

“Why hasn’t it been decided up to 30 years? Because the considerations were based on profit or loss calculations,” said Jokowi who’s also eyeing for his second presidential term in this year’s election.

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“Of course it would be an economic loss, there would be no way to make a profit, mass transportations are all at an economic loss,” he said.

Jokowi maintains that in facing a situation where there are no possibilities for profit, a State must calculate decisions based on benefits, instead of economic profit or loss. He remembered the time he faced difficulties in giving a green light to the MRT project politically and the country’s interest on a macro scale.

Based on a Bappenas study, the economic losses caused by traffic jams building up in Jakarta and its vicinity in the past couple of years amounted to Rp65 trillion annually. Jokowi said that this reason alone is justifiable to start the MRT and LRT project.

ANTARA