Papua Governor, Lukas Enembe – Jubi
Jayapura, Jubi – Papua Governor Lukas Enembe asked the Central Government to spare a special budget to manage the border area since Papua is considered the veranda of the Republic of Indonesia in the Pacific Sea area.
“Inclusive authority is needed to manage the border area. I expect all government’s programs at national and regional levels could be integrated and well managed in both coordination and implementation,” said Lukas Enembe when laying the first stone of Skouw Integrated Cross Border Station (PLBN) in Jayapura on Tuesday (29/3/2016).
Rebuilding PLBN is to show that the border area is the Indonesian window and yard as well as gateway for the Southern Pacific region.
‘Skouw region is part of the Republic of Indonesia which lie alongside Papua New Guinea and directly face the Pacific region. It spreads along 860 kilometers from the northern to southern area marking by 52 benchmarking stones built in two countries,” he said.
Enembe explained that each year about 30 thousands legal and illegal travelers crossed the border. In fact, since 1965, both countries have involved in negotiation to build the infrastructure for the border area, and now the President Widodo has included the PLBN construction in program development since last year.
However, Enembe admitted the current service is not yet optimal, particularly the cross border service. As the result, it raises many illegal activities, such as illegal fishing, fuel and firearm smuggling as well as drug trafficking.
“It is very important to build a cross border station for that reason, particularly to consider the tenure customary rights in Papua and Papua New Guinea,” he said.
He added until now there is no road access to cross the border from the northern to the southern region. Therefore Governor Enembe asked the Ministry of Public Works building a road access from Pegunungan Bintang Regency to Jayapura.
“We also need the support of the Central Government to open access to direct flight fro Papua New Guinea to enable access and good delivery. Earlier we have sent letter to airline company to open the flight service,” he said. (Alexander Loen/rom)
