Sulawesi wants funds for infrastructure

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Governors from six provinces on Sulawesi island have called on the government to help them provide infrastructure for businesses and agricultural activities to enable the island to be economically self-sufficient.

Gorontalo Governor Fadel Muhammad said on Wednesday that Sulawesi would need around Rp 5.5 trillion (US$535.5 million) over the next three years for irrigation, water pumps and inter- provincial roads connecting the whole island.

"Sulawesi has to build infrastructure to support businesses and the agriculture sector to cut its dependency on other islands," he said. "We are optimistic that we can be independent as an island."

The request was delivered in a special meeting between the governors and Vice President Jusuf Kalla. Aside from Fadel, the others were South Sulawesi Governor Amin Syam, North Sulawesi Governor Sinjo H. Sarundayang, Central Sulawesi Governor Aminuddin Ponulele, Southeast Sulawesi Governor Ali Mazi and acting governor for newly established West Sulawesi, Oentarto Sindung Mawardi.

Fadel said the proposed funds could come from enlarging general allocation funds (DAU) from the government to the regions or by assisting the provinces to seek loans from banks or issue bonds.

As reported on Wednesday, regional administrations are allowed to issue bonds and seek loans from domestic banks starting next year, following the issuance of the necessary ancillary regulations later this year by the government.

At present, regions can only depend on the DAU facilities for additional financial resources. Based on the existing law, provinces can receive a minimum of 25 percent of the state budget's domestic revenue, a figure that will be raised to 26 percent in 2008.

Although Sulawesi has abundant natural resources, the island is still underdeveloped compared to Java and Sumatra mostly due to lack of sea, air and land transportation access.

South Sulawesi is known as the country's rice barn while North Sulawesi and Central Sulawesi are rich in marine resources and export-oriented agricultural produce such as vanilla, coconut, clove, nutmeg and cocoa.

Sulawesi is nearly as big as the United Kingdom, but its population accounts for only 7 percent of the country's total population of some 235 million people.