The Japanese government has expressed its wish to take part in several major infrastructure projects in Indonesia, Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said after accompanying President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to meet with Japanese guests at the Presidential Place on Tuesday.

Basuki said that during the meeting Hiroto Izumi, special advisor to the Japanese prime minister on infrastructure affairs, expressed the wish of his government to accelerate the construction of Patimban port in Subang, West Java and a 70-kilometer toll road, connecting the port with Karawang Industrial Estate.

The Japanese government agreed to finance the project. “We will soon propose the loan to the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA),” Basuki said.

The Patimban port is designed to have a container capacity of 1.5 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) once it is partially completed in 2019 and 7.5 million TEUs by 2027, about half the capacity of the country’s busiest port, Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok.

The Japanese government also sought involvement in the construction of the medium speed Jakarta-Surabaya railway, said the minister, adding that President Jokowi would soon make decision on several options related to the project.

The third project is the Trans Sumatra Toll Road – particularly the Bukit Tinggi-Padang and the Bukit Tinggi-Pekanbaru section – for which the Japanese government agreed to provide financing to state-owned developer PT Hutama Karya, Basuki explained.

The other projects are the Greater Jakarta East-West MRT line project, development of several outer islands and the construction of a waste management system.

source: thejakartapost.com