President Jokowi Inspects Entikong Border Post

By Office of Assistant to Deputy Cabinet Secretary for State Documents & Translation     Date 23 Maret 2016
Category: News
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President Jokowi responds to reporters’ questions during a visit to Entikong State Border Crossing Post (PLBN), in Sanggau Regency, West Kalimantan, on Wednesday (23/3) afternoon

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and First Lady Ibu Iriana Jokowi on Wednesday afternoon (23/3) arrived at Entikong State Border Crossing Post (PLBN), located in Sanggau Regency, West Kalimantan, to inspect a number of locations around the post.

The President was accompanied by Minister of Public Works and Public Housing Basuki Hadimuljono and Minister of State Secretary Pratikno.

The first location that the President inspected was the check point at the arrival to Indonesia. Afterwards, the President and his entourage walked to one of the buildings within the PLBN that is currently under construction. The new building will become the main building in the PLBN. The inspection ended at the Garuda Monument, which is located in the front gate.

The construction of PLBN is expected to be finished by the end of 2016.

“I need to say that it (the new building) will be better than the previous one. It will be better than that (pointing the border between Indonesia and Malaysia),” the President firmly said.

The old building of Entikong PLBN will be demolished and replaced with the 2,000m2-new building.

The President asserted that Indonesia wants to show the world that Indonesia is a great country and nation and it must be represented by good buildings.

“It is our pride. It is our nationalism that we must show. We must indeed show them this is our window, our front yard, and the people entering our country will say ‘Oh, this is a big country’,” President Jokowi said.

By the end of this year, only market that is likely not to be finished yet. However, the President still wants to create major economic activities in Entikong PLBN.

The President said that there will be a modern market, instead of a mall; thus, small and micro enterprises could trade there.

According to the President, there are several reasons why the infrastructure is developed from the regions (outside Java) and border areas, one of which is that the Government wants centers of economic growth are found in the regions; thus, it is no longer ‘Java-centris (Java oriented) but the growth is also found in Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Papua, and other regions as well.

“We are not only developing the PLBN, but also the roads. The roads have been expanded several times. It was only 5 meters wide, but now it is 20 meters. It is huge,” the President added.

The President further said that the goals of infrastructure development is not only to increase the number of economic growth centers, but also and more importantly, to improve regional development.

However, the President said that at this point, the development does not yet include the development of tourism sector or bonded logistics center but at the next step, if necessary, the Government will develop those sectors as well.

Meanwhile, for the monitoring, the President will meet Chief of the Precinct Police (Kapolres), Commander of the Military District (Dandim), Commander of the Military Area (Pangdam), and Chief of Pontianak Regional Police (Kapolda) to discuss the issues of drugs abuse, terrorism in border areas, security, and other issues. (SLN/ES)(RAS/MMB/YM/Naster/RA/EP)

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