Lake Sentani Festival To keep Going Even With Minimal Funds

Sentani, Papua, May 27 (Antara) - Even with minimal funds, the Jayapura district government in Papua Province remains daring to hold Lake Sentanti cultural festival in June 2013, an official said. "The Jayapura district government has allocated more than Rp1.7 billion of funds to hold the sixth ever festival at Khalkote tourist beach in Sentani from June 19 to 23 this year," Chief of local Department of Income, Financial Management and Assets (DP2KA) Denny Simbar said here on Monday. Denny admitted that the funds were less than enough to finance such a considerable cultural festival, because the Lake Sentani Festival has been a national agenda in the tourism annual calendar. "The allocation of funds for the cultural festival this year comes from two sources, respectively Rp1 billion from the Tourism Department, and Rp750 million from 2013 Jayapura Regional Budget," Denny said. According to him, the funds of Rp750 million from the regional budget will be managed by indigenous institution for the festival`s activities. He expressed hope that with the minimal funds of only Rp1.7 billion, the Lake Sentani Festival will run smoothly and more successfully than the previous ones. Denny said the repair of physical infrastructure facilities at the site of the festival was handled by the Public Works Department, while the per-festival activities until the end of the event would be handled by the Department of Tourism. "We hope the Sixth Lake Sentani Festival this year will be more lively than that in the previous years, although with a limited funds," Denny said.