"In 2023, to help create jobs and maintain people's purchasing power, the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry is expediting work-intensive programs," Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said during a meeting with Commission V of the House of Representatives here on Tuesday.
He informed that he is aiming to cover a total of 785 thousand beneficiaries in this year's labor-intensive program.
In this year's work-intensive program plan, a budget of Rp5 trillion has been allocated for the water resources sector, which will employ 353 thousand workers. Moreover, Rp2.11 trillion has been allocated for labor-intensive settlements with 62 thousand workers targeted as beneficiaries.
A budget of Rp4.78 trillion has been set aside for the labor-intensive roads and bridges sector, which will seek to employ 80 thousand workers. As for the labor-intensive housing sector, a budget of Rp3.18 trillion has been allocated with the aim of generating employment for 290 thousand workers.
As of the end of December 2022, the Cash Labor-Intensive Program employed 1.06 million workers, the ministry informed.
To boost economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, the ministry also continued the Cash For Work Program in the form of infrastructure development, which involved local communities as the main force of development.
In 2022, the allocation for the Cash Labor-Intensive Program was Rp13.76 trillion with the number of targeted beneficiaries pegged at 668,764.
Until the end of December 2022, budget realization reached 91.33 percent, with 1,064,994 people employed under the program. Their number exceeded the initial plan.
The Cash Labor-Intensive Program comprises small-scale infrastructure development activities that do not require technology. It includes the program to pursue the improvement of irrigation water use as well as the operation and maintenance of irrigation networks and swamps.
Other activities include the routine maintenance of roads and bridges, road drainage revitalization, development of community-based drinking water and sanitation, city without slums, and regional socioeconomic infrastructure, sanitation for Islamic boarding schools and religious institutions, and community-built houses.
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Translator: Aji Cakti, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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