Tony Hotland, Jakarta – The government plans to issue a new regulation to ensure the trillions of rupiah entering Papua under special autonomy is being spent properly, the President says.

In the form of a presidential instruction, the regulation will target the development of infrastructure, poverty relief, heath care and education in the resource-rich but underdeveloped province.

The planned law is seen as a move to appease native Papuans, who are angry at years of neglect from the central government and Jakarta's inability to properly establish special autonomy in the region.

Speaking after meeting Papuan leaders, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the implementation of special autonomy had faltered in Papua because of some "key problems".

Without going into detail about the instruction, Yudhoyono said the decree would ensure the Rp 12 trillion (US$1.37 billion) of public money now being spent annually in the province to set up special autonomy was being properly accounted for.

Under the status, the province gets an larger share of revenues generated from lucrative, internationally owned mining and oil and gas concerns in the region – all money that used to go to central government.

"We need to ensure that the money, allotted in the state and the regional budgets, is distributed for its proper uses," he said.

Yudhoyono said the instruction would aim to speed up the implementation of poverty relief, infrastructure, education, health care programs in the province, and create a mechanism to better measure the region's progress.

In the long term, Yudhoyono said Papuans' standard of living should increase to at least the national average, they should suffer less from preventable diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria and have better access to education and jobs.

"We need to ensure that Papua has a sustainable source of food. In infrastructure, Papua must at least have basic facilities, like irrigation and roads, in the coming years," he said.

The President also promised the administration would ensure native Papuans held more positions in regional and central government and other public institutions.

"We need to empower more local people. This will require affirmative action so that (Papuan) youngsters can take positions in the civil service, military or police. There will always be a place for representatives from Papua," he said.

The government would also consult more local experts when it created policy or attempted to solve long-standing problems the region faced, he said.

It would continue to communicate with local institutions like the Papuan People's Council and would properly integrate the council's powers into the national system, he said.