VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) unswervingly drew emphasis to prosperity-oriented approaches to tackle problems in the provinces of Papua and West Papua, Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko stated.

"Since the start, President Jokowi has stressed that prosperity-oriented approaches lay greater emphasis on resolving Papua-related matters," Moeldoko was quoted by ANTARA as saying in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Citing one of the shining examples of the Jokowi administration's prosperity-oriented approaches, Moeldoko drew attention to various infrastructure construction projects in Papua and West Papua to enable them to be at par with other provinces.

President Jokowi also focused on boosting the economic sector of Papua and West Papua by, for instance, enforcing the one-fuel price policy there as part of the government's endeavors to create social justice for the local people, he pointed out.

The government also remains focused on development of the health and education sectors in the two Indonesian provinces, he remarked.

Moeldoko believes that the second phase of special autonomy status granted for Papua and West Papua would be driven to fuel a new spirit in expediting developments to create prosperity in both provinces.

"Regarding a road to the granting of this second phase of special autonomy, there has been in place the Presidential Decision No. 20 of 2020 on an integrated coordinating team for accelerating prosperity-oriented developments in Papua and West Papua," he stated.

The presidential decision is aimed at creating a spirit, paradigm, and novel methods to manage the accelerated developments in Papua and West Papua, he noted.

The presidential decision targets intensifying synergistic collaborations among ministries, government agencies, and regional administrations to expedite development programs to create prosperity in the two provinces.

ANTARA noted that the central government had provided special autonomy funds worth Rp126.99 trillion to Papua and West Papua since 2012.

In Indonesia's 2019 human development index, Papua and West Papua recorded scores of 64.7 and 60.84 respectively. (Antaranews)