Jakarta – President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) emphasized that the government continues to improve road infrastructure so that production and logistics lines are not disrupted. If damaged, the route has the potential to increase logistics costs which in turn can trigger an increase in inflation.
“Do not let the logistics routes, production roads be badly damaged, it will interfere and will increase logistics costs, increase inflation. That is our goal in improving infrastructure,” the President was quoted as saying during a visit to State Development Agricultural Vocational School (PPN) 1 Kualuh Selatan, Labuhanbatu Utara Regency, North Sumatra Province, Wednesday (17/5/2023).
For this reason, the President said that the Government will immediately repair damaged roads in North Sumatra Province. The repair is not only for the Gunting Saga Road that the President directly inspected, but also for roads in Asahan.
“Yes, it will be done immediately, God willing, in July 2023 everything will start, and not only in North Labuhanbatu, including in Asahan because our identification is complete,” the President said.
In addition to the two roads, the President also said that repairs will be carried out on other roads in North Sumatra Province. “But not only in North Sumatra, we will also check other provinces one by one,” the President added.
Furthermore, the President said that the Government has prepared a budget of Rp800 billion to repair all roads in North Sumatra Province. The President also reminded that provincial and regency/city governments still have the responsibility to repair the roads they are responsible for.
“We take over infrastructure roads that the regencies/cities and provinces do not have the ability to repair, so some of them are still the responsibility of the provinces and regencies/cities. Don’t just take over, the regencies/cities will sleep, no, that’s not the point. We want to help, accelerate, improve because of public complaints,” said President Joko Widodo. (InfoPublik/Photo: BPMI Setpres)
