“Financing for Priority Programs Must Not Depend Only on State Budget,” President Jokowi Says

Presidential Chief of Staff Teten Masduki, Minister of National Development Planning/Head of Development Planning Agency Bambang Brodjonegoro, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani, Minister of Manpower Hanif Dakhiri attend a limited meeting, at the Presidential Office, Jakarta, on Friday (16/9) afternoon (Picture: Rahmat/Public Relations Office)

President Joko Widodo emphasized that the financing for priority programs must not only depend on the State Budget (APBN). Therefore, the President firmly asked the state apparatus to be able to improve business climate and attract investors so the momentum of economic growth could be maintained.

“First priority is for private party.I don’t need to repeat. The current private party’s initiative must not be be stopped. If the private party cannot fully involve, they can be offered another option,” the President said in his introductory remarks at a limited meeting discussing the issue of the Development of the 2016 Revised State Budget and the 2017 State Budget Draft, at the Presidential Office, Jakarta, on Friday (16/9) afternoon.

Another option meant by the President is, for example, the PPP (Public Private Partnership) scheme. If there is no private party interested, the President added, it will be taken over by the State-Owned Enterprises or Regional State-Owned Enterprises. The Government will take over, at the last step, and get the fund from the State Budget and Regional State Budget (APBD).

“We will continue to take these steps,” the President said.

Thus, President Joko Widodo firmly said that it needs support from good investment climate, such as deregulation that guarantees business certainty, permitting process, and incentives. “The deregulation will be continued, Pak,” the President told Coordinating Minister for the Economy Darmin Nasution.

The President admitted, although a number of regulations have been cut off, still, there are hampering regulations. “I will show them later. There are a lot of them. Some regulations have been cut, but they appear again in other regulations. It’s useless, if it continues like this,” the President said and added that he will show it in a more specific meeting.

The President asked Minister Darmin Nasution to always escort the implementation of the thirteen Economic Policy Packages so they can be concretely implemented.

Meanwhile, in order to reduce the cost as well as the dwell time, the President asked Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Trade, and other related ministries to carry out a wide-scale reform in Indonesia’s ports since the dwell time is still relatively high.

According to the President, he already assigns a special team from the Indonesian National Police (Polri). The President expects other related ministries to join and make a system.

“Hopefully this system can work so that inefficiency in all places can be massively reduced. This is our target, nothing else,” the President said.

The limited meeting was attended by Coordinating Minister for the Economy Darmin Nasution, Minister of State Secretary Pratikno, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Presidential Chief of Staff Teten Masduki, Minister of Manpower Hanif Dakhiri, Minister of Trade Enggartiasto Lukito, Minister of Agrarian and Spatial Planning/Head of National Land Agency Sofyan Djalil, Minister of Communication and Informatics Rudiantara, Attorney General Prasetyo, and Head of Investment Coordinating Board Thomas Lembong. (FID/DND/RAH/ES) (MMB/YM/Naster)