Investing in the future of Papua & west
The remote and sparsely populated provinces of Papua and West Papua face a time of great change.
Monetary transfers from Jakarta have grown extraordinarily in recent years, by more than 600% in real
terms and 1300% in nominal terms since 2000, greatly increasing demand for goods and services. The
high price of imports in the interior is producing pressure to improve roads in order to lower transport
costs. Pressure is mounting to open up the interior of the region to commercial interests that would
like to extract resources: copper, gold, coal, petroleum, natural gas, and, above all, timber. Investment in
infrastructure especially in road transport is seen as the means to make dreams of development a
reality.
However, there are great challenges to development in Papua and West Papua. First, there is the question
of sustainability. After the minerals are extracted and after forests are clear-cut, what will be the economic
foundation of the local economy? And if the forests are removed rapidly, as they are being removed
in the Amazon basin and elsewhere within Indonesia, what will be the costs in lost biodiversity, lost
opportunities to slow climate change, and generally, lost opportunities to use resources in a way that
continues to generate income and environmental services for the great grandchildren who will inherit
the region? Finally, what will be the consequences of rapid economic exploitation of Papua and West
Papua’s non-renewable assets for indigenous Papuans? Will local people be provided in a timely way with
the knowledge and skills to adapt to rapid change and benefit from it, or will most of them lose their
languages, and their cultural heritage, as well as their traditional livelihoods?
Building infrastructure in Papua and West Papua also is challenging because of physical (i.e. topographical
and geological) conditions. Much of the region has either poorly drained peat soils or steep slopes with
thin soils subject to landslides and erosion. Most of Papua and West Papua also receive heavy seasonal
rainfall. The cost of building a good, well-planned road into the highlands is IDR 6 to 10 billion per
kilometer, far more than has been budgeted in the past. Combined with the low population density (a
region three times the size of Java has a population smaller than that of Lombok), this means that it takes
bigger networks of roads and power to serve the population. Moreover, such infrastructure has been
inadequately maintained. As a result, especially outside urban areas, there is too little to show for past
investments in roads, water supply systems, or power generating capacity.
On top of these challenges, the institutional capacity and human capital resources of the region make
infrastructure development difficult. Rapid subdivision of administrative units from 11 in 1999 to 38
in 2009 – means that most of the governments of regency as well as the government of West Papua
province are new and relatively inexperienced. Indigenous Papuans speak 250 different languages.
Education in the region is limited: the average education in six of the 27 regency of 2007 was less than
4 years and in another 19 regency average education was between 4 and 8 years.
Financial resources available to provincial, regency and governments for infrastructure planning
and investments have increased drastically over the past decade together, the provincial governments
of Papua and West Papua received transfers from Jakarta amounting to IDR 4.8 trillion in 2008 (up from
IDR 0.4 trillion in 2000), while district/city governments received IDR 17.0 trillion (up from IDR 1.2
trillion in 2000). Local revenues added one to two trillion to the 2008 total. And yet useful infrastructure
services being delivered to the Papuan and West Papuan population have increased little.
source:
Temukan peta dengan kualitas terbaik untuk gambar peta indonesia lengkap dengan provinsi.
