National Priority Programmes Deemed Difficult to Achieve without Central-Local Synergy

Strengthening the synergy of central and regional government policies is urged to be intensified alongside the acceleration of national priority programmes in the Golden Indonesia vision. The Head of the Domestic Policy Strategy Agency (BSKDN) of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Yusharto Huntoyungo, explained that these programmes include strengthening food and energy resilience, improving human resource quality, inclusive economic growth, sustainable development, and poverty alleviation. “The Indonesian government is currently intensively implementing various national priority programmes; this will not succeed without strong integration between central-level planning and regional implementation,” stated Yusharto at the National Seminar themed “Bridging Gaps in Regional Public Policy: Central-Regional Synchronisation, Budget Efficiency, and Strengthening Implementation Capacity to Realise Responsive and Accountable Governance,” organised by Singaperbangsa Karawang University (Unsika) in Karawang on Tuesday (28/4/2026). He acknowledged that several challenges remain in aligning central and regional policies, including suboptimal standards for policy output alignment, limitations in data quality as a basis for decision-making, and the lack of integration in policy tracking systems. Additionally, capacity gaps between policy formulators and implementers also affect the effectiveness of field implementation. To address these challenges, Yusharto said his agency is continuously promoting evidence-based policymaking through the provision of more valid and reliable data as well as developing the capacity of policy analysts in the regions. “To overcome this issue, we at BSKDN are striving to become a policy hub that connects data, analysis, and policy needs at both national and regional levels,” he explained.