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As the nation watched on live television, governors across the country stepped up to the podium in their provinces to present a status update on the infrastructure projects they had undertaken or completed. Listening in Jakarta was President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his cabinet, as well as top business leaders. 

The information coming out from the nation’s heartland was positive. Regional leaders, it seems, have caught the ball and are now pushing ahead with projects that promise to deliver the progress that the people yearn for. 

In total, the government announced plans for 17 new infrastructure projects across four provinces worth an estimated Rp 190 trillion ($20 billion) as a first phase of a new infrastructure push, according to Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa. It is good to see that many of these projects are slated for Eastern Indonesia, which is rich in promise but poor in terms of infrastructure and output. 

The minister added that the projects were officially part of the government’s overall economic blueprint that runs through 2014 and will be worth Rp 4,000 trillion in investment. The president’s personal interest in ensuring that the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia’s Economic Development (MP3EI) has galvanized both regional government leaders as well as the business community. 

We now have a good chance to take Indonesia forward if the plan is fully and properly implemented. Current economic growth, especially in outlying areas, is not sustainable as infrastructure is stretched thin. Continued logistical bottlenecks and poor physical infrastructure make it impossible to push growth higher in eastern Indonesia and in parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan. 

As such, investing in infrastructure is an absolute must. As a country, we have a huge infrastructure deficit which is slowing potential growth down.  

But investing now in a bold way will go a long way toward laying the foundations for the next 30 years. This will help to realize the predictions that in nominal GDP terms, Indonesia will be the fastest-growing economy in the world over the next decade. 

But for this to become reality, all parties must put aside politics and skepticism to support the master plan and get this initiative going.