Lukas Enembe (left) and Luhut B. Panjaitan (right) in Jayapura – Jubi
Jayapura, Jubi – Papua Governor Lukas Enembe said higher Human Development Index scores did not necessarily reflect the achievements of a province.
“Low HDI as happening in Papua that currently is in the last position of 34 provinces occurred because historically the number was low, as we just started the development since 2002 by Special Autonomy. It is not comparable to other provinces in Indonesia,” Enembe recently told reporter in Jayapura.
Examining the growth rate, he explained, Papua’s economy was improving because it grows around 8.76 percent per year, which is significantly higher than overall Indonesian economic growth.
Papuan economic growth is in line with the welfare of Papuan people. It was indicated by the reduction of poverty rate in 2015 to 28.17 percent while in 2013 it reached 30.05 percent, so it reduces to 1.88 percent.
“Along with this achievement, Papua was awarded as the first rank province in reducing the poverty number,” he said.
In addition, the implementation of development 2016 to materialize the vision of Papua, there are main programs that have high leverage and could be directly experienced by people, namely Gerbangmas Hasrat Papua and Prospek.
“For Gerbangmas, the Provincial Province allocated Rp 250 billion for 2016 and Rp 565 billion for Prospek, in which all were allocated for the villages in 29 regencies and municipality in Papua,” said Enembe.
Earlier, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan claimed the Human Development Index of Papua Province has not been improved. It was have indications of inefficiency of development and funds use.
“It becomes a problem. It means the budget absorption was not right. If you looked at the budget absorption from 2007 to present, it is the same. It shows indication that we did not use the development funds efficiently in Papua,” said Pandjaitan some weeks ago.
He emphasized that the benefits of special autonomy funds has not been clearly obtained. Therefore, the education and health sectors must be immediately improved.
“I frankly have asked to the Attorney General George Brendis for Australia to get involved in education and health. Not for money. We have enough money. But the technology to combat the various diseases occurred here,” he said.
In response to this, he noticed as well as invited all stakeholders in Papua to not quarrel about unnecessary issues, for the education and health sectors is the important issue.
“If we examine that currently the HDI of regencies in Papua is under the national and provincial averages. It becomes a problem for us. I would give data to the Regional Secretary to be examined. Because our data indicated the average HDI per regency and province is under the national average,” Pandjaitan said. (*/rom)
