REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- House of Representatives (DPR) Commission-XI deputy chairman Harry Azhar Azis has urged the government to increase its infrastructure budget as a concrete step in coping with the nation's infrastructure sectors.

"Although the government has repeatedly said that infrastructure management was a serious problem, the infrastructure budget it allocated was not enough, based upon the nation's needs," Azis noted.

According to Azis, the proposed infrastructure budget would raise public questions about the government's seriousness in confronting infrastructure problems.

He also said that improving the nation's infrastructure is a fundamental requirement to assure Indonesia's economic sustainability in the future.

Aziz said that if the infrastructure problem was not immediately addressed, it would trouble the country and be detrimental to the business sector.

Therefore, he urged the government to think over the allocation of the infrastructure budget, and if necessary, the budgets for other sectors which were not as urgent might be transferred for infrastructure development.

Meanwhile, Dedy Priatna, deputy to the National Development Planning Minister for infrastructures and facilities, has said the government needed Rp4,800 trillion in funds to improve the country's basic infrastructures, based upon the medium-term development plan 2015-2019.

Speaking at a media gathering in Bogor, West Java last Friday, Priatna said, "I have tried to provide a picture of infrastructure development costs. To achieve 100 percent of basic infrastructure development, Rp4,800 trillion in funds is needed from 2015 to 2019."

He said the funds would be used for developing basic infrastructures, including clean water, electricity and sanitation, and to improve the living standard of the Indonesian nation, as a whole.

"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 were not allocated, he said.

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