TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo officially launched the Processing Waste into Electrical Energy (PSEL) facility at the Benowo final processing site in the city of Surabaya on Thursday, May 6, 2021.

The President used the opportunity to recognize the achievement of the local administration and personally compared it to his inability to establish a similar project throughout his career prior to becoming the President.

"From personal experience that I went through since 2008 when I was a mayor, then a governor, then became a President, I was unable to create a waste to electrical energy processing facility," said the President in a press release on May 6, 2021.

"It is what I always wanted to do for the city of Solo when I was their mayor," Jokowi added.

Jokowi recalled that regional administrations were still afraid of realizing such an ambitious project not only because of the lack of legal standing that did not exist back then, he also said there were issues with a Presidential Regulation (PP) on managing regionally owned property.

The current PSEL in Surabaya city is legally overseen under Presidential Regulation No.35/2018 on PSEL installation that had been prepared since 2018.

"The speed of the Surabaya city administration should be given a thumbs up and completed the first facility out of the seven planned under the Presidential Regulation," said President Jokowi.

KUKUH S. WIBOWO | TEMPO.CO