President Prabowo, House’s Commission V Discuss Infrastructure, Housing Issues

President Prabowo meets with the leadership of Commission V of the Indonesian House of Representatives, at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Thursday (04/17). (Photo by: BPMI of Presidential Secretariat)

President Prabowo Subianto Thursday (04/17) met with the leadership of Commission V of the Indonesian House of Representatives, at the Merdeka Palace. In his statement following the meeting, Chairperson of Commission V, Lasarus, said that the meeting discussed various strategic issues, including preservation of national road infrastructure.

“I raised the issue of road preservation, and Mr. President immediately responded and gave order to conduct this preservation to ensure the stability of national roads. That’s the first point,” Lasarus said.

He went on to say the meeting also discussed the urgency of improving the quality of regional roads. He added that the President also gave order to continuously maintain regional roads as stipulated in the Presidential Instruction on Regional Roads.

“Earlier, we reported that more than 90 percent of national roads are in good condition. However, as for regional roads, the road stability of regency roads and provincial roads is still at 40 percent and 60 percent respectively. The President also gave order to pay serious attention to regional roads in accordance with the scheme set out in the Presidential Instruction on Regional Roads,” he said.

In addition, President Prabowo and Commission V also touched on the issue of food security. The President ordered relevant institutions to immediately complete the construction of irrigation systems around dams.

“We also discussed the urgency to complete the irrigation systems soon because they are crucial for ensuring food security. The irrigation we discussed here is not only the one in relation to dams, but also including rain-fed rice field irrigation, using a simple irrigation system, which can be implemented directly by local communities,” he said adding that the meeting also discussed Law Number 1 of 2011 on Housing and Settlement Areas in an effort to create balanced housing.

President Prabowo, he added, also emphasized that the official will take firm action against Over Dimension and Over Loading (ODOL) freight trucks because the roads can no longer bear the loads of these vehicles.

“We had a very constructive discussion. The President responded to all issues on infrastructure which we deemed necessary for the Government to pay attention to,” he concluded. (BPMI of Presidential Secretariat) (RAS/TM)