JAKARTA. To date, Ministry of Public Works and People’s Housing (PU-Pera) has settled the contracts of 952 projects worth Rp 6.44 trillion.

Minister of PU-Pera Basuki Hadimuljono targets to sign all contracts of infrastructure projects in the ministry by the end of this quarter.

Those contract packages consist of various sectors, such as food and water resiliencies, inter-regions connectivity, residential, and housing.

Those also include the infrastructure projects in the border areas, remote areas, and outermost islands, as well as the revitalization of slums areas.

Some contracts of infrastructure projects had been signed. Those include the rehabilitations of Padang Panjang-Lubuk Alung road and Padang Panjang-Solok road, which are handled by PT Pebana Adi Sarana.

The contracts also include the construction of Solo-Kertosono section IV toll road by PT Nindya Karya, the construction of landfills of Palopo city by PT Haka Utama, the development of water suply system in district Tabonji (Merauke Regency) by PT Tunas Perbamo, and the development of facilities and infrastructures of ground water processing to raw water (10 points) in Timor Island.

Basuki said, the infrastructure developments will result not only the physical infrastructure, but also reduce inter-regions gaps to achieve the equitable development.

“Infrastructure developments also contribute to provision of employments to reduce poverty rate,” he added.

Basuki is optimistic that the number of contracts, which will be signed by the end of January, will amount to 1,523 packages worth Rp 11.58 trillion. According to Basuki, this achievement will be much better than in 2016. In that year, the realization of the project contracts only amounted to Rp 6 trillion.

The more contracted projects will accelerate the budget absorption. According to Basuki, the absorption rate of infrastructure budgets is expected to increase from 2.2% in January 2016 to 4.2% in January 2014.

Basuki added, the signments of contracts in the early of January have involved local business entities. As information, a project worth less than Rp 50 billion will be prioritized to local contractors.

Secretary General of Ministry of PU-Pera Anita Firmanti said, there were 68 contract packages concurrently signed on 17 January. Most of the contracts related to irrigation rehabilitation, water provision, and road construction. There are 23 packages of road projects.

As of 17 January, Directorate General of Water Resources has signed a worth of Rp 2 trillion contracts. The number is projected to increase by Rp 1.8 trillion by the end of January.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Bina Marga has signed contracts of projects worth Rp 3.5 trillion by 17 January. There will be additional contracts worth Rp 8 trillion at the end of January. During the same period, Directorate General of Cipta Karya has realized a worth of Rp 257.5 billion contracts as of the mid of January. The directorate general is projected to sign additional contracts worth Rp 283 billion as of the end of January 2017.

Ministry of PU-Pera receives significant budget allocation as much as Rp 101.49 trillion for this year. Anita expects that the budget absorption will reach 98%. (Muhammad Farid/Translator)

Editor: Barratut Taqiyyah Rafie