FEB UI Professor: The Benefits of Infrastructure Development in the Jokowi Era Have Been Felt
Jakarta – FEB UI Professor Prof. Telisa Aulia Falianty said that the benefits of infrastructure development during President Jokowi’s administration can now be felt by the wider community.
This was conveyed by FEB UI Professor Prof. Telisa when he was a resource person in the Sapa Indonesia Malam dialogue on Kompas TV, Friday 4/10/2024.
“Infrastructure has quite a large multiplier effect, the characteristic of infrastructure in Indonesia is that it is labor intensive, because many PSNs absorb employment opportunities,” said Prof Telisa.
“We are encouraging TKDN, the government continues to encourage infrastructure development with local products, such as the cement industry, transportation and so on from the domestic economy,” he said.
“We as a society feel the efficiency of our activities with this infrastructure development,” he stressed.
Usually people think that infrastructure is physical, even though it is also related to technology. “In Pak Jokowi’s era, our internet speed has accelerated, such as from 4G to 5G, making it easier for us to communicate and be productive,” explained Prof Telisa.
The economy also uses a lot of digital, so this all really helps the national economy, he concluded
“We must appreciate Pak Jokowi that he is the father of Indonesian infrastructure because he left an extraordinary legacy,” he added.
“We have so far been able to maintain the economy at 5 percent despite global economic pressures, we can still continue to grow in the COVID-19 era and even recover faster than countries that have implemented lockdowns,” he said.
At that time, infrastructure really helped this economy. President Jokowi’s leadership is very worthy of being called the Father of Indonesian Infrastructure, he added.
Meanwhile, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Susiwijono Moegiarso, also conveyed the same thing during a dialogue on Kompas TV, Friday Night, 4/4 /2024.
According to him, it is related to connectivity and mobility, such as airports, ports, railway lines, then there is also energy related to food sovereignty with 53 dams, food estates with irrigation networks that have been realized, said Susiwijono
There is also downstreaming from Special Economic Zones (KEK), to date there are 22. If we look at the spread, 15 are outside Java, thereby encouraging an inclusive economy. The additional workforce has reached 122 thousand workers, he explained.
Meanwhile, talking about the 3T area, it has boosted the economy in border areas, such as in Jayapura, Irian, then there is also the border with Timor Leste, he concluded.
4 This massive infrastructure development has had a big impact on our economic growth over the past decade, he said
These are all multi-year projects, so in terms of numbers, relatively all of them have been completed and some are still in progress.
We carry out regular PSN evaluations and report them, so from the last record, there are 233 projects, some of which have been completed by the end of this year, some after 2024. So all of them are still in process.
Our various infrastructure projects, both PSN and economic development areas, especially KEK or regions, will indeed level all sources of economic growth, especially outside Java.
“Currently, of the 22 SEZs that are operating, 15 are also outside Java, as well as several 3T areas. The government continues to encourage the development of new economic sources in border areas,” he concluded.
“Regarding the sustainability of the project, I think that for next year’s 2025 APBN posture, the government will still allocate a very large amount, 400.3 T with a focus on several basic services to the community, starting with education, health, then food and energy security issues,” he explained.
Infrastructure is the most important thing to encourage our economic growth, he said.
Especially the share to our GDP, just one example of the construction sector, the share to GDP is already 10 percent alone, apart from that, our consumption sector has also been in several years, most recently in the first semester of 2024, Fgrowth was still 7.5 percent, so it is very high, he stressed. .
Then if we look at the multiplier effect, from just one construction sector, the linkage to other sectors is very high. “Because of that, the government is confident that we will continue to develop infrastructure in the future, not only encouraging economic growth, which we will continue to maintain at a level above 5 percent, even as stated by the President,” he said.
For future sustainability, we want to push back some of the infrastructure that we have built in the past 10 years, what will happen next? For example, from 61 dams we have reached 53, next we will encourage the irrigation network, optimizing the use of the dams themselves, he concluded.
