Deputy Minister of Housing and DIY Governor Discuss President's Urban Planning Vision

Yogyakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Minister of Housing and Settlement Areas (PKP) Fahri Hamzah met the Governor of the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X, to discuss President Prabowo Subianto’s grand plan for the arrangement and improvement of cities across Indonesia.

“This connects with the idea I wrote about, making for a fascinating discussion. And it happens that the President himself has a grand plan to improve the cities we have in Indonesia,” said Fahri after paying a courtesy visit to the Governor of DIY in Yogyakarta on Tuesday.

Beyond urban renewal in Indonesian cities, he continued, the head of state also plans to create new residential pockets to modernise Indonesian society.

“Whether through the three million houses programme or the Indonesia Asri movement, this will be transformative, large-scale work going forward,” he said.

“Given that Yogyakarta is one of our cultural treasures and one of the old cities in Indonesia, I sought his thoughts and input on how to manage urban areas based on existing experience,” he said.

According to the Deputy Minister, the DIY regional government has extensive experience in urban planning, including observations on how communities develop both at home and abroad.

“So it was very engaging, and Ngarso Dalem (the Governor) received me once again — in the past, as Speaker of the House, I also called on him, and now I have been given time again, which is an extraordinary learning opportunity for me,” he said.

“That is why we discussed everything from philosophy to technical issues concerning the arrangement of areas, including coastal zones, riverbanks and so on,” he said.

Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X said the meeting with the Deputy Minister was a first step towards further discussions on how to apply urban arrangement and improvement, including in Yogyakarta.

“At the moment it is only his perspective, but later, once we look at the locations and so on, our thinking will broaden to the possibilities, how to design it and so on — the technical matters we will discuss again,” he said.