REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- President Joko Widodo in a number of occasions has sought to convince the public that the slashing of oil fuel (BBM) subsidy is to allow the government to set aside fund to finance infrastructure development.

To show that the government is serious with its commitments, Vice President Jusuf Kalla asked the public works and housing minister to start work immediately.

"We expect early phases of all infrastructure projects would start by May," Kalla told a group of reporters in his office.

He said he received report from the Public Works and Housing Minister about infrastructure and housing development as well as about water resources.

"The public works and housing ministry has the second largest budget after the Education Ministry," he said.

Meanwhile Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimoeljono said tenders have been made for procurement for all strategic programs in 2015.

All procurements are with electronic procurement (e-procurement), the minister said.

He said the tenders covered 9,850 packages or 71.69 percent of a total of 13,739 packages worth Rp59.9 trillion or 77.38 percent of the total value of Rp77.4 trillion maximum limit to be carried out by the ministry.

He said the government gives high priority to development of infrastructure hoping to attract more investors to the country, adding infrastructure is vital for economic development.

Earlier, the Indonesian Federation of Construction Companies (Gapensi) said the success in attracting more investors will depend on the progress made in infrastructure development.

"The key is in infrastructure. If infrastructure is good investors will come," secretary general of Gapensi Andi Rukman Karumpa said.

Gapensi said foreign investors would have high confidence in Indonesian economy if the central government and regional administration succeeded in coping with difficulty in land clearing.

Implementation and completion of many development projects especially in the regions have been delayed over difficulty in land clearing.

Andi said the provincial and district administration are not serious in cooperation to deal with difficulty in their problems such as in land clearing for infrastructure projects.

"Each of them goes each own way. There is no coordination," he said.

An official said construction of infrastructure should be carried out on multi-year contract to speed up completion.

Acting Construction Director General at the Public Works and Housing Ministry Hediyanto W Husaini said multi year contr5act will speed up completion of projects.

"We would not lose time three months for procurement of goods and service . In three months we could complete 30percent - 40 percent of the jobs," Hediyanto said.

Multi year contract, however, will need approval of the finance minister and for that one to two months that would be needed, he said.

Approval from the finance minister is required by a presidential regulation, although what is needed is only approval for multi year contract.

"We, therefore, propose that approval should be given only by the relevant minister or agency which know better of the project," he said.

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