"This effort is a turning point for the revival of the transportation industry because it continues to increase passenger occupancy," he observed at the Global Tourism Forum or the 2022 Global Tourism Forum-Annual Meeting in Bali on Thursday.
He said that a number of efforts have been made to revive transportation, including the issuance of several circulars regarding easier transportation and travel requirements, while still prioritizing the implementation of the health protocols.
In addition, the Ministry of Transportation, together with transportation operators, is also continuing to optimize the use of technology to minimize the spread of the virus, including by digitizing services at airports and using HEPA filters to keep the air at public transportation facilities clean.
Furthermore, the Transportation Ministry has also launched a number of incentives, for example, Aircraft Passenger Services (PJP2U) or Passenger Service Charge (PSC) in the aviation sector.
Speaking at the forum, the minister said that the recovery efforts have started to show results. One of the indicators is that, based on data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), transportation and warehousing grew the most in the third quarter of 2022 at 25.8 percent (year on year).
This shows a trend that has continued to increase since early 2022 and has made an important contribution to Indonesia's economic growth, which increased by 5.72 percent year on year in the third quarter of 2022.
However, the Minister of Transportation reminded all parties to continue to strive to maintain the momentum of growth and remain alert to conditions created by global uncertainty, such as further pandemics, climate change, and global war tensions in the future.
He also revealed efforts to build the future of public transportation in post-pandemic Indonesia.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that we must think ahead. In the future, Indonesia needs to improve network connectivity, transportation safety, environmentally friendly transportation, and intermodal integration," he said.
For increasing connectivity between regions, the Ministry of Transportation will continue to build transportation infrastructure, both in urban areas and in remote, frontier, lagging, and border areas (3TP).
To overcome the limited state fiscal capacity (APBN) for financing transportation infrastructure development in Indonesia, the Minister of Transportation will continue to encourage non-APBN creative funding through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme, state asset funds, utilization cooperation (KSP), mixed financing, green financing in green project infrastructure, as well as establishing a Public Service Agency (BLU) and increasing non-tax state revenue (PNBP).
"At the moment of the G20 Presidency, we signed several memorandums of understanding for non-APBN creative funding with three countries, namely Japan, England, and South Korea, for the development of the Jakarta MRT (Mass Rapid Transit),” he said.
The government is also committed to reducing exhaust emissions from fossil fuel vehicles by starting to transform energy from fossil fuels into new renewable energy (EBT), he added.
The government is targeting to produce at least two million electric vehicles by 2025.
It will develop an electric vehicle ecosystem so that Indonesia does not remain merely a market or consumer of electric vehicles but also becomes a producer given its natural resource potential for producing components for electric vehicles.
The Minister of Transportation also underlined the importance of strengthening cooperation with stakeholders such as ministries or other institutions, state-owned enterprises (BUMN), the private sector, academia, the media, and the public.
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Translator: Adimas R, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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