National leaders gather to draw up five year plan
Erwida Maulia , The Jakarta Post , Cipanas, West Java | Wed, 02/03/2010 10:10 AM | National
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday kicked off a two-day meeting with Cabinet ministers and the country’s 33 governors to discuss national development plans for the next five years.
He said the meeting was aimed at “synchronizing” and encouraging “synergy” in regional and central government development plans.
“I hope this meeting will lead to solutions to a number of essential issues,” the President said in his opening speech at the meeting, held at Cipanas State Palace in West Java .
“I hope after this meeting, there will be no more blame games between central and regional administrations, and that the meeting will bring concrete results to improve the prosperity of the people.”
Yudhoyono explained that participants of the meeting would be divided into six working groups: spatial planning including agrarian issues; food resilience from production to distribution; energy, especially ensuring adequate supply; infrastructure like roads and bridges aiming at national connectivity; social empowerment programs like education, public health and the informal economy; and bureaucracy reform, law enforcement, democracy and security.
“What we’ll be doing today is finalizing the process we started in the national gathering and the national summit,” Yudhoyono said, referring to two events last year.
Participants are also scheduled to hear presentations by Vice President Boediono on the outcome of the new government’s first 100-day programs, and National Development Planning Minister Armida Alisjahbana on the mid-term national development plans (RPJMN) for the 2010-2014 period.
“The reason why I’d like governors to attend and take an active part in the meeting is so we can discuss key issues we face,” Yudhoyono said.
He said he hoped the meeting would address the roots of the problems while looking for solutions.
“Governors and ministers are thus expected to delve more into the issues in the working groups,” he said.
