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Indonesian is in search of huge amount of funds to finance its ambitious infrastructure projects that are vital for the country to continue to attain high growth in the years to come.
This was revealed Monday by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in his opening remarks at a national conference of the National Constructors Association (Gapensi) held in the resort island of Bali.
The president said that some 4,600 trillion rupiah (386 billion U.S. dollars) is needed to finance infrastructure projects across the country included in the Masterplan for Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia's Economy (MP3EI), which was launched in 2011 and scheduled to complete in 2025.
"Despite the fact that Indonesia was among world's 20 countries demonstrating high growth and is supported by considerably strong fundamentals, Indonesia still has shortcomings in infrastructure," Yudhoyono said.
According to the president, so far 800 trillion rupiah (67.2 billion U.S. dollars) has been secured for some of the MP3EI projects including airports, seaports and toll roads.
He said involvement of the private sector is very essential to ensure the MP3EI to be completed as scheduled, as the government is only able to provide 30 percent of the funds needed.
Yudhoyono encouraged national constructors to undertake the infrastructure projects, adding partnership with foreign investors on fair and just basis is also welcomed should domestic constructors be hardly able to carry out the projects by themselves.
If the infrastructure improvement program is successful, Yudhoyono, who will end his maximum two five-year presidency term this year, said Indonesia would be among the world's 15 countries with strong economic fundamentals by 2030.
The MP3EI, which was initiated in Yudhoyono's second term, was aimed at improving connectivity between six economic corridors across the country including Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali-Nusa Tenggara and Papua-Maluku so as to spur their economic growth.
Under the MP3EI, Sumatra is the country's crops, plantations and energy production center, Java will emerge as a center of manufacturing and service sectors, while Kalimantan is projected to be a production center for mining and energy. Meanwhile, Sulawesi will appear as a processing center for farm, fishery and plantation products,Bali-Nusa Tenggara will focus tourism industry, whilst Papua and Maluku will specialize in processing natural resources.
Capitalizing on the MP3EI, Indonesia aims to achieve a gross domestic product (GDP) of 1.09 trillion U.S. dollars by 2015 and 2. 16 trillion U.S. dollars in 2030.
Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, posted an average growth of above 6 percent in the last five years.
