Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar currently only has one runway and cannot be developed anymore due to land issues so if something happens at the airport, Bali's air access is also practically closed.
"In my opinion, this is not good, because there are many complications from this share," Teguh Dartanto, Dean of Faculty of Economics and Business University of Indonesia.
The reason is building Nusantara is a "giant job" and is complicated.
TheIndonesia.id - The government has updated the National Strategic Projects list ahead of the second semester of 2022, which saw 208 projects and 10 programs set in 2021 updated to 200 projects and 12 programs.
"The changes will be enacted by the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs Regulation No. 9 of 2022, currently in the drafting process, and will be published soon," Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs' Deputy for Regional and Spatial Development Coordination Wahyu Utomo as quoted by Antara on Tuesday, July 26, 2022.
Updates on the National Strategic Projects' list include removal and addition of projects as well as nomenclature changes, he remarked.
Utomo noted that one of the projects removed from the list is the Tiro Dam in Aceh, whose development was hindered by continued protests by residents that made it impossible to complete the project by the first semester of 2024 as per President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi's) target.
The Cikarang-Bekasi (CBL) Inland Waterway Canal project in West Java was another project removed from the list, he noted, adding that the revocation was made by recommendations from the Transportation Ministry and PT Pelindo, as the project executor. "The CBL project study is still not completed until now. Hence, the project was removed from the National Strategic Project list," the ministry deputy noted.
He said that the Tanjung Api-Api Special Economic Zone development project in Banyuasin, South Sumatra, was also revoked from the list due to the lack of progress, which compelled the government to strip the region of the special economic zone status. Meanwhile, Utomo noted that new strategic projects included in the new coordinating ministry's regulation will fulfil several criteria on job creation, downstream process, and private funding.
Despite not revealing the included projects, as the regulation is under the drafting process, he affirmed that projects on the updated list could be completed according to their timetable. "We hope that in 2022, we would have some 20 projects completed, but this is merely our assumption based on the current progress, as other issues might occur in future. Hence, we do not perceive this as certainty, but we will continue our monitoring and work," Utomo remarked.
11 Million Jobs
At least 11 million people have been employed through the National Strategic Project (PSN) Program since 2016, an official of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs said. "This number (of employed people) is direct, indirect, and induced," Wahyu Utomo noted in a media briefing here on Tuesday.
Utomo remarked that PSN will continue to create jobs until 2024, as several projects are still in the construction, transaction process, or preparation stage.
The estimated total direct job absorption through PSN based on investment absorption is 1.95 million people in four years for the 2020-2024 period, he stated. In detail, the estimated figure is 415,820 people employed in Sumatra, 221,370 people employed in Kalimantan, and 192,976 people employed in Sulawesi.
Moreover, 696,065 people were employed in Java, 27,925 in Bali and Nusa Tenggara Islands, 157,531 in Maluku and Papua, and 240,709 in other regions.
Utomo explained that the estimate was drawn from the calculation of 200 projects and three programs of PSN and not from all the total 208 projects and 10 programs due to limited information available across the projects, especially in terms of the project scope and investment absorption.
The assessment used in the estimate is the wage proportion that accounts for 25 percent of the investment value, and each person receives 14 months of salary in a year.
National Strategic Projects, according to the Committee for Acceleration of Priority Infrastructure Delivery (KPPIP), among others, comprises airport revitalization, toll roads, bridges, water and sanitation, public transportation, information technology infrastructure, electricity, port, refinery, and so on.
Some of the prevalent projects are the Palapa Ring Broadband project, the Trans Sumatra Toll Road, strategic dams to improve food security, and special economic zones (KEK).
