Infrastructure in Indonesia
Infrastructure development has long been neglected in Indonesia – a characteristic that President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) set as a primary goal for his administration to rectify during his term. The World Bank says Indonesia has a $1.5tn infrastructure gap when compared to other emerging economies, with a lack of effective transport corridors across the 17,000 islands cited as a major hindrance to economic development.
After taking office in 2014, Jokowi took advantage of a fall in global oil prices to put a cap on an expensive fuel subsidy the government had been providing, freeing up fiscal resources to inject $15bn into the state infrastructure budget. By 2017, that figure had more than doubled, as the government worked towards fulfilling their slate of ‘national strategic projects’ – 222 major initiatives, 20 of which are complete and 127 of which are under construction.
