Jokowi Boasts 1,900 Kilometers of New Toll Roads After 7 Years of Tenure

JAKARTADAILY.ID - The development of toll road infrastructure since 2014 has increased significantly during the administration of President Joko Widodo.

President Jokowi said that for the past seven years, the government had built 1,900 kilometers of toll roads.

He later emphasized the 1,900-kilometer toll road took only seven years to be built. Compared with the construction of toll roads before 2014, the number is significantly higher, which is only 780 kilometers in 40 years.

"Mr. PUPR [Public Works and Public Housing] Minister [Basuki Hadimuljono], how many kilometers [of toll roads] have been built in the last seven years? 1,900 km. Previously, it was 780 kilometers [in] 40 years," said Jokowi during the signing of the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA) master agreement in Jakarta on Thursday, April 14, 2022.

However, building toll roads of that length did not always run smoothly. Jokowi said there were always problems, especially when it came to the availability of financing sources.

Jokowi said that before 2014, many toll road constructions did not involve alternative sources of financing and only depended on the state budget or state-owned enterprises.

"Or [constructions were] handed over to the private sector, which did not go well even after several years," he said.

Therefore, the Indonesian government decided to form the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA). INA is a sovereign wealth fund formed to manage the investment of the central government.

According to Jokowi, because building toll roads requires high costs, alternative financing is needed so that they do not only depend on the state or state-owned enterprises' budget.

"Imagine, the length of the Trans Sumatra toll road from Lampung to Aceh is 2,900 km. If it is calculated per kilometer, [it costs around] Rp 90-110 billion per kilometer [to build], how much funding is needed? [The figure would be] very huge," said Jokowi, as quoted by Antara.

Furthermore, Jokowi emphasized that although infrastructure projects require a large budget, they have immense benefits, especially to increase the competitiveness of domestic products, aside from multiplied economic effects.

"How important is infrastructure — our competitiveness, products produced in our country will be difficult to compete with other countries if our infrastructure is not good," said Jokowi.

Previously, INA signed a financing agreement of Rp 39 trillion with PT Hutama Karya Persero Tbk and PT Waskita Karya Persero Tbk and PT Waskita Toll Road on Thursday, April 14, 2022.