The development projects in Sulawesi would include among others construction of railway tracks and developing rice producing centers, he said here on Thursday.
"There are parts of overall Sulawesi development that would cost up to Rp2,400 trillion in investment. There are other projects such as optic and telecommunications networks," he said.
Fadel said the government would make Sulawesi the national rice producing center with a production target set at above five million tons.
"We wish to make Sulawesi a food base. We wish rice surplus from there to reach five million tons," he said.
He said the rice producing center is expected to be able to help overcome shortage of supply. "So we need not be worried about shortage of rice," he said.
To support the big plan the regional governments have been asked to conduct re-negotiations on overlapping land ownership.
Fadel said the railway network later would connect all regions on the island.
He said a foreign investor had expressed an interest in carrying out the project namely Russia.
"The railway network will stretch as long as 2,000 kilometers and an investor has already expressed readiness to fund it," he said.
(T.KR-IAZ/H-YH/HAJM/O001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
