Jokowi to Focus on Food Sovereignty, Infrastructure Development

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President elect Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo conveyed his commitment to continue the programs in the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of the Indonesian Economy (MP3EI). However, he said the programs to be continued will focus on achieving food sovereignty.

"The focus is obviously different. We are now focusing on agriculture. Food sovereignty is our priority," Jokowi said at the Jakarta City Hall yesterday.

Jokowi planned on conducting a further evaluation in determining which programs in the MP3EI to be continued and abandoned. "We have to see everything first. [Then] we have to continue the good programs and adjust those that need improvement," Jokowi said.

One of the programs to be continued is the construction of dams. The program, Jokowi said, is in accordance with the priorities to achieve food sovereignty so the next government will implement it.

"Take food sovereignty for example. For the agriculture sector, what do we have to build? It’s dams. As I said earlier, we’re going to build dams. We will accelerate construction of dams," he said.

Jokowi also put emphasis on the importance of infrastructure development in the implementation of the MP3EI programs. According to him, the next government must make every effort to realize development of infrastructures and should there are funding issues, the government must find alternative sources of funding.

"If the funds from the State Budget are insufficient, we can turn to investors," said Jokowi.

As for the development of infrastructures, he also noted that the focus of the infrastructure development is marine transportation and train. "We are now focusing on the sea transportation and train. This is the goal of infrastructure development.".

ANANDA TERESIA