REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Indonesian Association of Construction Companies (Gapensi) said the Public Works and Housing (PUPR) Ministry has performed well and contributed significantly to the country's economic growth.

"The PUPR Ministry has performed well. A number of its achievements have contributed to a stronger growth of the country's economy in the second quarter of 2016," Gapensi secretary general Andi Rukman Karumpa said here on Saturday.

Andi Rukman Karumpa pointed to the more than expected growth of 5.18 percent recorded for the country's economy in the April - June period year-on-year, exceeding the 4.9 percent target set by the Central Bank.

The growth in the second quarter of this year was also higher than 4.9 percent in the first quarter and 4.7 percent in the second quarter of last year.

Andi said one of the main contributors to the growth in the second quarter of this year was the infrastructure and construction sector.

"We see a number of breakthroughs made by the government in this sector that the growth surged to 5.18 percent overshooting a number of predictions," he said.

However, the ministry was still slow in using its budget fund of Rp104.981 trillion set fort this year.

Its spending until April 7 was only 9.42 percent of the budget falling short of the target of 12 percent.

The largest spending was made by the Bina Marga (highway and bridge) Directorate General with spending reaching 11.54 percent of the budget.

The second largest was recorded by the Housing Financing Directorate General with spending reaching 9.40 percent of the budget, followed by the Water Resource Directorate General 9.20 percent and the Housing Provision Directorate General 8.45 percent.

Urgent projects needed to support national priority program in the 2016 fiscal year include dam or water works projects, infrastructure projects in frontier areas in West Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara and Papua, and housing and infrastructure projects in Papua and West Papua.

The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) has asked the government to involve the private sector in the development of government's infrastructure projects.

"The private sector needs to be more involved in the national economic development. Currently, a number of state companies (BUMN) have taken part in the projects owned by the private sector. Therefore, we want the government to also give opportunity for the private sector," General Chairman of Kadin) Rosan P. Roeslani said in a news conference here earlier this week.

Rosan said the private sector should be involved in the development of the country's economic backbone especially infrastructure.

Earlier, Coordinating Minister for Economy Darmin Nasution said the government is seeking to optimize the existing infrastructure supporting efforts to boost food production apart from building new units of infrastructure.

"Optimization would cost less such as dredging dams which have become shallow than building new ones," Darmin said.

President Joko Widodo and a number of ministers had held special meeting on increasing food production by optimizing the supporting infrastructure.

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