President Jokowi Distributes 5000 Land Certificates in South Sulawesi

President Jokowi and First Lady Ibu Iriana are greeted by Governor of South Sulawesi Ad Interim Sumarsono at Hasanuddin Air Force Base, Makassar, before take another flight to Parepare, South Sulawesi on Monday (2/7). (Photo by: Presidential Secretariat).

As part of his working visit to South Sulawesi province, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Monday (27/7) handed over land certificates for residents in the province.

As many as 5000 land certificate were given to the residents of Makassar, Gowa, Maros, Pangkajene Islands (Pangkep), Barru, Sopeng, Bone, Wajo, Parepare, Pinrang and Sidenreng Rappang (Sidrap).

“I am very happy to be here today in Parepare, the birthplace of Pak B.J. Habibie,” President Jokowi said, referring to former Indonesian President.

On that occasion, the President also reaffirms the Government’s commitment to improve the public service, particularly on land policy and added that the Government will continue to accelerate land certification process since 80 million parcels of land in the country have not been certified in 2015.  Formerly, only 500-600 thousand certificates were issued every year so it will take 160 years to certify all parcels of land, the President said.

President Jokowi went on to say last year he instructed Ministry of Agrarian and Spatial Planning/Head of National Land Agency to work harder to issue land certificates and as the result, the Government has issued approximately 5 million certificates in 2017. The target, however, will be increased to 7 million certificates a year, the President added.

The President also told the certificate holders not to worry about the legal status of their land anymore because the certificate proves that the state acknowledges the certificate holders as the lawful owners of the land. (BPMI Setpres/ES) (RI/EP/Naster)