Private sector and local governments are expected to participate more in helping villages reach energy self-sufficiency as the central government is lacking the funds to run such programs alone.
Under the central government’s energy self-sufficiency villages program (DME) that has run since 2007, 633 villages have reached energy self-sufficiency at the cost of Rp 895.3 billion (US$89 million), Bayu Krisnamurthi, a deputy to the coordinating minister for the economy, said Thursday.
Of about 70,000 villages in Indonesia, between 3,000 and 4,000 need to reach energy self-sufficiency, “costing from Rp 4.5 trillion to Rp 5 trillion”, he said in an expose of the two-year running program.
“We have invested Rp 75 billion this year but we still need support. The current development is still ad-hoc (temporary),” he said.
“Information, technology and support are three crucial points. We invite the private sector to conduct corporate social responsibility (CSR) program (in villages), and local governments to put more [effort into] this issue,” he added.
The government expects all of the 4,000 villages targeted can reach energy self-sufficiency by 2014, said Musdhalifah Machmud, coordinator of the program.
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