World Bank's Soft Loan Funding of US$635mn Currently Awaiting Finalization, Minister Says

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning (ATR), Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, has said that soft loan funding of US$635 million from the World Bank is currently awaiting the finalization at the Ministry of Finance.

"In principle, the World Bank has agreed, we just have to wait for finalization at the Ministry of Finance," he informed at the 2024 Agrarian Reform Summit in Bali on Saturday, June 15, 2024.

He said that the soft loan is an effort made by his ministry to address the 2025 ATR Ministry budget gap, given the indicative budget ceiling of just Rp6.4 trillion (US$388 million).

That is one of the challenges that his ministry needs to face to resolve the issue of agrarian reform.

According to him, the funding initially amounted to US$200 million, but, during negotiations, the soft loan was increased to US$635 million, or around Rp10 trillion.

Agus further informed that his ministry will use the additional funding to raise the budget from Rp6.4 trillion to Rp14 trillion to optimize the completion of the target for complete systematic land registration (PTSL), land redistribution, and land consolidation.9

"And the other thing is also in the field of spatial planning, remember, we still have homework to reach two thousand RDTR or detailed spatial planning plans are not easy," Agus said.

"As of today, we only have 500. This means we are still only around 25 percent. To catch up to 100 percent, we need resources, need a budget," he added.

Agus said that apart from budget problems, the challenges faced by the ministry also include overlapping regulations related to land.

Therefore, to mitigate overlapping regulations, the ministry will increase synergy with ministries/institutions, such as the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) and Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP).

According to him, the synergy will focus on map integration (one map policy) to optimize spatial planning and mitigate overlapping regulations.

"It's not force based on each territory or authority. We are looking for a middle point because the goal is the same; in fact, every ministry has the same goal of wanting to make the President's program a success," he added.

Earlier on Friday, deputy chairperson of Commission II of the House of Representatives (DPR), Junimart Girsang, said that his party supports the plan to increase the ATR Ministry budget, which was previously proposed, to Rp14 trillion (around US$849 million).

Girsang said that the commission is making a full push to increase the budget because it wants to enable the ATR Ministry to work optimally to resolve land problems in the country.

"Not only Rp14T (trillion), yesterday, I officially asked the ATR Ministry through the secretary general to re-evaluate it, increase it, in order to support the work of ATR," he said.

ANTARA

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