Ilustration
Jayapura, 14/7 (Jubi) – Papua has requested the World Bank to continue its Public Expenditure Analysis and Capacity Harmonization (PEACH) program in the province.
“The public expenditure analysis has become a spotlight. Papua Province is the first province of Indonesia where the World Bank has implemented the PEACH program. This program is also part of the transparency and the second phase of implementation during 2010 – 2014,” the Second Assistant for Papua Economic and Development, Elia Loupatty said to reporters in Jayapura on Monday (14/7).
PEACH program is aimed to providing support towards the local government to have better understanding about the budget they have used in the past in order to reallocate the regional expenditure budget to develop the public services in the future.
“We read the report and the analysis was very focus, especially for the education and health sectors. The analysis has gave a good signal both for people and the government both at the provincial or regional levels, in which the World Bank named the demographic bonus.
“It’s part of the resources that can be used to solve the health and education problems,” he said. Besides the education and health sectors, Loupatty added the productive labor sector has also got a note from the World Bank. According to him, this information needs to be disseminated, therefore the entrepreneurs or the government’s partners need to pay attention towards the key word: the productive labor force is sufficiently numerous by 2015.
“I saw about 30 years ahead there would be more productive labor force. Therefore I asked the government’s partners to seek this condition. Because this must be tailored with the ability and condition of the local labor force,” he said.
He added the labor issue is also an important thing for all related stakeholders both in province or regency.
“Because this could be the government’s reference to make improvement and increase the three sectors including the education, health and labor force,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Sector Manager and Lead Economist of World Bank Indonesia, James Brumby said since 2005, the World Bank has been working with the Provincial Government of Papua under the PEACH, in which this institution found the Papua Government has committed to improve the performance of public resources management and basic services provision.
“This commitment has assisted the PEACH program to get several achievements. The World Bank in cooperation with the Regional Finance Study Center of Cenderawasih University has launched the Papua Public Finance Analysis in 2005 and 2009. PEA 2005 Report is the first PEA in Indonesia which particularly highlighted the public expenditure at the provincial level,” said James Brumby.
Based on these findings, said Brumby, the WB has conducted the capacity building on the Regional Finance Management within 2011-2014 in collaboration with Gadjah Mada University (UGM) and the Regional Finance Study Center of Cenderawasih University. Further, the WB also held several empowerment activities for the local NGOs and local media in Papua supported by Yayasan BAKTI who had the important role in the development cooperation for the Indonesia Eastern area.
“Today we confirmed that we have completed the Papua Public Finance Analysis 2014. The theme of the report is Optimizing the Demographic Bonus Potential in Papua by Improving the Public Expenditure in the Education and Health Sectors,” he said. (Jubi/Alex/rom)
