The president called on the regional heads to reduce operational expenditure in areas such as official travel funds and the costs incurred in organizing meetings and seminars.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has urged the regional heads to wisely spend the regional budget on productive activities, which will have a positive impact on the regional economy.
"The regional budget had increased four folds, but the production capacity had not grown significantly as had been pointed out by the vice president that the budget was being largely spent on operational expenditure rather than to promote economic growth," President Jokowi stated during the 2016 Government Working Meeting with all governors, deputy governors, and regional and deputy regional heads at the State Palace on Friday.
The president called on the regional heads to reduce operational expenditure in areas such as official travel funds and the costs incurred in organizing meetings and seminars.
Jokowi also urged the regions to use domestic products to meet the needs of goods.
Earlier, on the same occasion, Vice President Jusuf Kalla had remarked that the state and regional budget had continued to increase, but the economic growth had failed to meet expectations.
"It appears that the budget was not spent to boost economic growth, but funds were used to meet the operational expenditure. We can find Italian-made furniture and luxury cars in remote districts. This means that the budget was used for operational expenditure and not to encourage development and economic growth," Kalla emphasized.
The vice president affirmed that Indonesia needed just and able leaders who can boost economic growth since he did not want the budget at the state and regional level to grow without registering a growth in the economy.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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