REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BOGOR -- The Indonesian government needs Rp4,800 trillion in funds to improve the country's basic infrastructures based upon the medium-term development plan 2015-2019, an official said.

"I have tried to provide a picture of (infrastructure development cost). To achieve 100 percent of basic infrastructure development, Rp4,800 trillion in funds is needed from 2015 to 2019," said Dedy Priatna, deputy to the National Development Planning Minister for infrastructures and facilities, speaking at a media gathering in Bogor, West Java, on Friday.

The funds will be needed to develop basic infrastructures, including clean water, electricity and sanitation, and to improve the living standard of the Indonesian nation as a whole, he said.

However, the government will find it difficult to allocate these funds because the budget for infrastructure development must not exceed 5 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), he said.

In the medium-term development plan 2010-2014, the total funds for infrastructure development reached Rp1,975 trillion, or 5 percent of the GDP, which still could not be allocated, he said.

"We could only provide Rp1,400 trillion, or 4.8 percent of the GDP in the past five years. The figure already included funds from state-owned companies. It is difficult to achieve 5 percent of the GDP, even as China and India have allocated 10 percent and 8 percent, respectively," he said.

One of the basic infrastructures that must be handled soon is sanitation. In Jakarta, the city administration can only build 2.8 percent of the total sanitation facilities needed, compared to Singapore, which reached 100 percent, Kuala Lumpur at 96 percent and Hanoi at 68 percent, he said.

"Nearly 1.4 million people have died of diarrhea, and bad sanitation has inflicted Rp66 trillion in losses, particularly due to health problems," he noted.

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