East Kalimantan Priority Program Coordination Determines 2018 Policy Direction

Samarinda, 29/3/2017. The East Kalimantan Provincial Government through the Regional Development Planning Agency held the 2018 Priority Program Coordination Meeting in the East Kalimantan Bappeda Regional Police meeting room Jl. Kusuma Bangsa Number 2 Samarinda was attended by approximately two hundred participants from the East Kalimantan Provincial DPRD and all Regional Apparatus within the East Kalimantan Provincial Government.

The implementation of the 2018 East Kalimantan Priority Program Coordination Meeting is a very strategic forum and can determine the direction of policy and development which leads to the determination of regional development priority programs for 2018. Today's meeting is the finalization of a series of Priority Program Discussions which have been carried out from 22 to 27 March by the Planning Division of the East Kalimantan Province Bappeda with each Regional Apparatus, through the Regional Development Planning Information System (SIPPD) application.

This was expressed by Assistant II for Economic and Development Administration Ir.H.Ichwansyah, MM representing the Regional Secretary of East Kalimantan Province accompanied by the Head of Bappeda for East Kalimantan Province, Dr.Ir.H. Zairin Zain, M.Si at the opening of the 2018 East Kalimantan Priority Program Coordination Meeting.

In his speech the Regional Secretary of East Kalimantan Province which was read by the Assistant for Economic and Development Administration said that the 2018 RKPD was the final year for implementing the 2013-2018 RPJMD with the vision of "Equitable and Just Prosperous East Kalimantan Based on Agro-Industry and Environmentally Friendly Energy" under the leadership of Mr. Awang Faroek Isaac. In the long-term planning stage, the 2013-2018 RPJMD is the stage for building the basic foundation towards the Transformation of Regional Economic Structure with the vision of building a regional economic structure that is based on the processing of renewable natural resources.

The results of the evaluation of the implementation of the 3rd year RPJMD, namely 2016, show that if we look at the performance achievements of the 19 East Kalimantan RPJMD targets, the achievements are 'quite good', where 54.62% of the RPJMD targets have been achieved. Furthermore, if we look at the 119 Priority Programs, the achievement is 73.68% on track; 15.79% on-going; and 10.53% offtrack. This shows that what we have done has largely led to regional targets.

With the theme "Strengthening the Community's Economy Towards Fair and Equitable Prosperity," the East Kalimantan RKPD in 2018 means that regional development prioritizes programs that lead to improving community welfare in a fair and equitable manner. This needs to be the focus of our collective attention so that the East Kalimantan RPJMD Vision 2013-2018 can be realized.

The theme of the 2018 RKPD contains the understanding that regional economic development is directed at optimizing and integrating development spending sourced from government, private and community spending in encouraging improvements in the community's economy which has a direct impact on reducing poverty and unemployment.

By integrating government, private and community spending, it is hoped that the quality of East Kalimantan's economic growth will improve, where economic activity is expected to directly improve community welfare and reduce poverty and unemployment rates. One way that can be done is to create community partnerships with large businesses that support the economy of East Kalimantan.

If you look at GRDP based on expenditure in 2016, the economy of East Kalimantan is supported by a net export component of 57.51%, investment of 24.63%, and household consumption of 14.85%. This growth support structure is very vulnerable to fluctuations in commodity prices and economic conditions outside East Kalimantan.

By paying attention to the regional economic structure, the concept and strategy for developing the 8 Strategic Areas that have been outlined in the 2013-2018 East Kalimantan Province RPJMD need to be further strengthened to obtain added value from each commodity produced. The comparative advantages of each region need to be supported by government spending focused on increasing investment competitiveness in each region.

As we know, the financial condition of East Kalimantan Province in the last few years has continued to experience a "decline". If we look at the trend, from 2013 to 2017 the revenue budget fell by 3.4 trillion. Meanwhile, the expenditure budget from 2013 to 2017 decreased by 7.1 trillion.

Apart from the decline in world commodity prices, the decrease in Profit Sharing Funds which contributes more than 45% to the revenue budget also affects East Kalimantan's fiscal capacity. In fact, the low realization of APBD revenues resulted in East Kalimantan experiencing a budget deficit, which required the postponement of several direct government expenditure items, as in 2016, with a delay of 35%.

The various problems we face, such as: The dependence of the regional economy on world commodity prices, the uncertainty of central fund transfer policies to the regions, as well as changes in regulations that affect authority and institutions, require us to re-examine the Regional Development Priority Program to then adapt it to regional Fiscal capabilities.

This condition ultimately "forced" the East Kalimantan Provincial Government to revise the targets in the 2013 – 2018 RPJMD, from the previous 119 Priority Programs to 29 Priority Programs.

The selection of these 29 Priority Programs was carried out using an approach to programs that were considered to have direct leverage in solving problems, such as: Program for Improving the Quality of Educators and Education Personnel, Program for Ease of Service and Acceleration of Licensing, Electricity Development Program, Program for Increasing Agricultural Production of Food Crops, Toll Road Development Program, Program for Opening Regional Isolation, and others. This means that the programs we plan in the 2018 RKPD must be in the corridor of efforts to support the achievement of the goals and targets of the 29 priority programs.

For all of us to know, the Real Regional Financial Capacity of East Kalimantan Province for 2018 is estimated to be "only" ±224 Billion. Or a decrease of 426 billion from the Real Capacity in 2017 which was ±650 Billion. With a projected expenditure budget that is approximately the same as 2017 at 8 trillion, the expenditure burden that must be financed by the Provincial Government has increased sharply.

Some of the mandatory and binding expenditures which "sucked up" quite a large proportion of the expenditure budget in 2018, namely: Completion of Multi-Year Contract Projects, amounting to ±1.5 trillion and Implementation Costs ±PILKADA amounting to ±400 Billion. I believe that BAPPEDA has worked hard to distribute this limited budget to each Regional Apparatus Organization according to their needs.

Regarding this, I ask every Regional Apparatus to accept this condition, and be able to truly utilize the available funds effectively, efficiently, carefully and wisely, in order to fulfill government service obligations to the public, while supporting efforts to achieve the targets of the Priority Programs that have been announced.

Of course it is not an easy task, but with the capabilities of all our colleagues, and with all of us working together, I am sure that this challenge can be resolved well.

I need to emphasize that the East Kalimantan Provincial Government is strictly avoiding debt policies in budgeting. Therefore, we must all be able to make breakthroughs in terms of creating activities that are able to generate sources of development financing so that we do not continue to depend on funding sources from the center or debt.

For example, the East Kalimantan Provincial Government through Bappeda and the ESDM Department on February 23-24 synchronized the Community Empowerment Program (PPM) for Mineral and Coal Mining business activities with the 2017 provincial government program. It was recorded that 52 Mineral and Coal Mining companies in East Kalimantan had submitted 518 PPM spread across districts/cities with total funds amounting to Rp. 158,510 billion.

The programs planned are scholarship programs, agricultural seed assistance, school rehabilitation, irrigation development and others. It is hoped that the PPM funds can become a stimulus for regional development financing sources in achieving provincial and district/city development targets.

Through this Coordination Meeting I hope that there will be at least 4 (four) main substances that can be agreed upon by all Regional Apparatus Organizations in preparing the 2018 RKPD, namely: (1) Budget Ceiling Plan; (2) Performance Targets; (3) Specific Location, and (4) Type of Shopping; from each Priority Program. The results of this meeting will then become an important input in the process of synchronization and synergy between provincial priority programs and the results of the district/city RKPD Musrenbang in the Regional Apparatus Forum which is planned to be held this afternoon until tomorrow.

At the end of his speech, the East Kalimantan Provincial Secretary advised that as an output from this activity, I request a Minutes of Verification of the 2018 Regional Apparatus Work Plan Draft, which is accompanied by an attachment to the 2018 Regional Apparatus Program/Activity Plan Matrix. This Minutes is signed by the Planning Officer of the East Kalimantan Provincial Bappeda and Officials from each Regional Apparatus concerned. Apart from that, I request a Minutes of Priority Program Agreement signed by the Head of Bappeda, the Regional Secretary and representatives of the Heads of Regional Apparatus.

(Public Relations of Bappeda of East Kalimantan Province/Sukandar, S.Sos).