APEC Officials Discuss Challengers In Region's Infrastructure Development

Jakarta, April 16 (Antara) - APEC senior officials in a meeting recently discussed about challenges in the development of infrastructure in the region involving partnership between the government and private sector. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting which took place on Monday (April 15) in Surabaya, East Java, enlisted some of the challenges in implementing the partnership namely inappropriate feasibility study, insufficient funding, complicated bureaucracy, politicization of the infrastructure project and land acquisition issue, according to a press release from the foreign ministry here on Tuesday. The officials also acknowledged the presence of request from private sector to the government in the past to appoint international consultant to conduct feasibility study of an infrastructure project plan. For some member economies, such request was quiet challenging to be conducted considering the high cost. In order to tackle such challenges, the Indonesian delegation during the Surabaya meeting had proposed several alternatives namely the importance of creating strong regulation and good governance among APEC economies to support infrastructure development, simplify bureaucracy process for infrastructure project and sufficient guarantee on projects that are worth to be given credits from bank. Meanwhile Chairman of Indonesian Senior Officials at APEC meeting Yuri Thamrin said economies in Asia pacific region between 2010 to 2020 are expected to spend US$8 Trillion to build various infrastructure projects such as those related to energy, transportation and communication. All developments are meant to support connectivity in the region while also maintain economic growth. "Considering the importance of this issue, Indonesia as the Chairman of APEC this year has made commitment to make infrastructure development an important subject to be discussed in various APEC meetings throughout the year," he said.