SBY holds meeting to speed development in three provinces

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 01/20/2011 3:24 PM | National

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono held a meeting Thursday to accelerate development in three provinces; Papua, West Papua and Sulawesi Tenggara.

Vice President Boediono and ministers from the Indonesian United Cabinet (KIB) II attended the meeting to hear presentations from the three governors.

"We must direct more attention to provinces that require more resources and budget to speed development," Yudhoyono said before the meeting.

Yudhoyono said successful development in the province was not only about development itself, but about management, collaboration, and concepts and synergy, between the central and local government.

"This is what we will do in the future," he said.

Yudhoyono added that over the past two years the government had allocated a huge budget amount to Papua, for example.

In 2009, Papua received Rp 16 trillion (US$1.76 billion), and Rp 19.8 trillion in 2010.

This year, Yudhoyono said, the government had allocated Rp 20 trillion to Papua.

"I just want to show that the budget amount allocated to the province has increased significantly," he said, adding that the government would make sure the development in the province would be a success.