Indonesia sees no rush despite push from Malaysia
Nurfika Osman, The Jakarta Post
Indonesia is in no rush to revive the controversial Malacca Straits Bridge project, which has been on hold since the Asian financial crisis back in 1998, a senior government official says.
The Public Works Ministry’s director general for highways, Djoko Murjanto, said in Jakarta on Friday that the ministry, together with relevant ministries and departments, such as the Foreign Ministry and the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), would need to comprehensively study the prospects for the bridge and its benefits for Indonesia.
“We understand that this project is important to strengthen connectivity across ASEAN, particularly between Indonesia and Malaysia. But, we have to be fully prepared in terms of infrastructure, safety and security before this bridge is constructed, as it will connect our country to the whole of Asia, not only Malaysia,” Djoko told The Jakarta Post.
“Our position is that we are not rushing this project; nor do we have it on hold. We have not yet seen any urgency for it.” Djoko said.
The idea of building a bridge between the two countries was first mooted in 1996 by then-Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad when he met Indonesia’s president, Soeharto, in Kuala Lumpur.
However, the idea was thwarted by the regional economic crisis and then by environmental concerns. Over the years, the Malacca government has tried to revive it but to no avail.
The project was discussed again during the 10th Chief Ministers and Governors’ Forum (CMGF) of the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) convention in Koh Samui, Thailand, on Sept. 12.
If it is built, the bridge would span 48.7 kilometers from Teluk Gong in Malacca to Rupat Island in Indonesia, with an additional 71.2-km-long expressway running from Rupat, where the bridge ends, to Dumai.
This project is expected to make the transporting of raw materials from Sumatra to Malaysia easier, while at the same time opening new markets for businesses in both countries.
According to Malaysia’s daily newspaper, The Star, Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron said the project’s finer details concerning the linking of Teluk Gong to Dumai Port would be revealed when all mechanisms were in place.
“The [CMGF] forum took note of the economic potential and strategic positioning of the IMT-GT with the construction of the Malacca-Dumai Bridge,” Idris said as quoted by The Star.
Now, the Malacca state government has reappointed Strait of Malacca Partners to be the master planner and builder of the bridge, which it is estimated will cost 44.3 billion Malaysian ringgit (US$14 billion), with financial backing from China’s Export-Import Bank (Exim).
The Exim Bank, an equity partner in the project, has agreed to finance 85 percent of the bridge’s costs. The rest will come from regional sovereign funds and private investors.
Separately, the National Planning and Development Board’s (Bappenas) expert on public private partnerships (PPPs), M. Zulfikar, said the project was not yet on the board’s list.
Zulfikar also said that if the government pushed the project forward, it would be complicated as it involved two nations.
“This is going to be a complex project and it will take some time, if we decide to build it. But so far, we have not seen it in the PPP scheme project list,” he told the Post.
