I ask for accelerationJakarta (ANTARA News) - The government will speed up development of infrastructure for two special economic zones of Sei Mangke in North Sumatra and Tanjung Lesung in Banten.
"I ask for acceleration," chief economics minister Hatta Rajasa said after a meeting on the special economic zones here on Tuesday.
Hatta said the process in the development of the Sei Mengke special economic zone has been hampered over problem in land clearing slowing the progress of work in its infrastructure.
"The problem has been sorted out and we hope no more problem concerning land clearing," he stated.
"Road construction has been progressing as expected. Everything has been on the track carried out by the public works ministry," he said.
He said development of Sei Mengke could be integrated with development of nearby ports such as Dumai and Belawan ports.
The special industrial area is also expected to boost development of downstream mineral and palm oil industries, he said.
North Sumatra and neighboring province of Riau are the country`s largest producer of palm oil.
The burden of Dumai and Belawan would be reduced in exporting bulky raw materials such as crude palm oil and minerals from the two regions.
Hatta said there have been private investors ready to take over development of the Tanjung Lesung tourism area .
He said investors have been ready to build a toll road and and airport with the government contributing to widen the national roads in that area.
"Sei Mangke will be built by state company with support from the government and Tanjung Lesung is to be built by the private sector to be backed up by the government" he said.
The government`s part of the job of building and widening roads is being carried out by the public works ministry to be completed in 2012-2013, he said.
He said in the meeting the economics minister also discussed 13 proposals for new special economic zones and plan to build two special economic zones this year.
The two zones to be built this year are Palu and Bitung both in the economic corridor of Sulawesi in the Master Plan of Acceleration and Expansion of the Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI).
"The National Council of Special Economic Zone is studying preparation in 2012 and a team propose Palu and Bitung both in Sulawesi," he said.
Hatta expressed disappointment with case in Sei Mengke that such big investor like Unilever reconsidered plan to invest there only on land dispute.
"It should not necessary be a problem with good preparation," he said, adding the experience in Sei Mangke should happen again."
Special economic zone must be fully ready to receive investors, he added.
(SYS/H-ASG/F001)
Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
