Jakarta – The government's plan to boost capital spending for infrastructure is set to get a major boost as the House of Representatives is scheduled to endorse the long-awaited land acquisition bill today.
Under the new law, each step in all business and legal processes involving land acquisition for government-commissioned infrastructure projects will be given a clear time frame.
"A land acquisition process will take no more than 436 days after the bill is endorsed and the rights of the public are fulfilled," Joyo Winoto, the head of National Land Agency (BPN) told The Jakarta Post.
Provisions in the bill also allow a more democratic process in securing land for government projects.
Although a provincial governor has the final say on the appointment of a location for a government infrastructure project, his decision must consider inputs from regional leaders within the province and project assessments from credible scholars.
The public and land owners also have the right to refuse the governor's decision and file a complaint to the state administrative court and continue to appeal to the highest legal level right up to the Supreme Court.
Fatchur Rochman, chairman of the Indonesian Toll Road Association (ATI), said the bill would provide a higher level of certainty and make government projects more bankable.
"It has taken five-and-a-half years to acquire land for the Jakarta-Palimanan toll road. With this bill, businesspeople will have certainty in business and the country's development will be assured," Fatchur said.
The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) also welcomed the bill endorsement, but warned of potential pitfalls.
"We are happy with the time frame that is set in the bill, but we are afraid of injustice in the courts," Hariyadi Sukamdani, Kadin's vice chairman for monetary, fiscal, and public policy, said. Hariyadi said that bribery and injustice in the courts was still a gargantuan obstacle for business.
In a separate interview, Iwan Nurdin, the campaign deputy of the Agrarian Renewal Consortium (KPA), said the land acquisition bill only accommodated the interests of the government and not necessarily the people. The poor, he said, were always on the losing end.
"We are not going to stop fighting people who do not understand the importance of land for the people. We will ask the Constitutional Court to review the law," he told the Post.
The Yudhoyono administration plans to spend Rp 27.2 trillion (US$3.18 billion) in 2012, an increase of 19.3 percent from last year's spending, in a bid to achieve a 6.7 percent GDP growth.
Planned infrastructure projects include development of 14 airports, 150 kilometers of railway, 4,005 kilometers of road, 7.68 kilometers of bridges, dams and other projects aside from the existing infrastructure expansion plans to connect the thousands of islands throughout the archipelago.
The government has allocated Rp 54.6 trillion to fund those infrastructure projects, the proposed 2012 budget shows. Yudhyono said he expected that the projects would provide jobs and, in turn, reduce poverty in Southeast Asia's largest economy.