Infrastructure Expenditure Must Be Doubled

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VIVAnews - To achieve growth in the gross domestic products at seven percent by 2012, the Indonesian government must advance the capital expenditure twice as much as this year's budget.

The government this year have just spent infrastructure expenditure by 3.5 percent of the GDP. "It's still too low," said World Bank Lead Financial Economist, P.S. Srinivas, today, Sept 30.

If the government can double the budget, the infrastructure growth in Indonesia may get to a level as it did before the 1998 crisis. "Indonesia may exceed China," he said.

However, Srinivas said that the government cannot depend much on private sector to boost infrastructure development.

In addition, private sector may contribute to 20-30 percent of the required infrastructure development. "Private sector will not set up infrastructure in neither Papua nor East Nusa Tenggara," he said.

Economists estimated that the Indonesian economy will be one of the world's superiors next year.

Fauzi Ichsan, a senior economist at the Standard Chartered Bank, believed that Indonesia's GDP would reach 6.2 percent late this year.

VIVA/Infrastructure Expenditure Must Be Doubled