Seeking A Solution For Indonesia 's Infrastructure Gap Essay

In the past ten years there have been many infrastructure failures that make you wonder when the government will get serious about the issue at hand. Not paying attention to the condition of infrastructure has proven to

America made a multibillion dollar investment when the Federal Highway Act of 1956 was signed into law by Dwight Eisenhower. This was a milestone for America, connecting the nation like it had never been before. Since this time, however, the United States has done very little in terms of infrastructure investment. Currently, the American Society of Civil Engineers ranks America’s infrastructure as a D + (2013). American no longer leads the world in the best roads, airports, rail, or bridges. This is a serious problem that will lead to security, environmental, economic, and political issues if not addressed fully and swiftly. America needs to act promptly to revive the nation’s infrastructure system before additional nations surpass the US while the cost becomes too big to bear.

In Figure 2 it is evident that Indonesia’s cost of living, as reflected by the CPI, has been significantly deteriorating over the last 8 years. Although research argues that CPI may not be an effective indicator of the cost of living for a developing country such as Indonesia (East Asia, 2015). In contrast measuring the percentage of a household budget that goes to food is could be a good indicator. Since 2000, the percentage of household budget spent on food has declined, meaning higher expenditure on discretionary goods and services. This indicates that Indonesia’s urban regions are getting richer faster than the impression expressed with the CPI (East Asia, 2015). This is also reflected in figure 1, as the significant increase of mobile phone subscriptions is a good proxy of increased living standards as a mobile phone is a discretionary living cost. This is a result of the Indonesian growth rate earning a higher level of surplus income to spend on more luxury items.

America has 5,540 deficient bridges alone, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Infrastructure Report Card. Every four years, ASCE provides America with an assessment including recommendations, condition, and needs for the nation’s infrastructure. In a basic A-F format, the Report Card is graded in eight main categories: capacity, condition, funding, future need, operation and maintenance, public safety, resilience, and innovation. This report card, since 1998, has given the nation a steady D, only rising to a D+ in the 2013 report. The Report states that there is a need of 3.6 trillion dollars in investments by 2020 to raise the grade up to a B. Funding America’s infrastructure is of major controversy and debate. Starting

The United States needs a top class infrastructure system. We need a transportation system by land, water, and air that will move people and goods in an organized way and at an affordable cost. However, our infrastructure

Development of transport infrastructure is a very expensive process. When the Canadian government, in the 1870s, promised to build a railway from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, it took more than two years just to find a company which agreed to do it. This is what happens today when the country needs to grow the

In regard to the existing policy models and theories, policymaking seems like driving a great car, with some best friends, on the perfect road, at a constant speed to some beautiful destinations. In practice, however, that is not the case. Policy practice is like driving an almost damaged car with a sick passenger, on a full of holes road, to uncertain destinations. That simple illustration from one of my class sessions reminds me of some challenging real-world policymaking I ever experienced. As a junior analyst at the office of Indonesian VP, I learned that regardless of the positive impacts, the VP’s energy conversion policy had to confront various uncertainties that made the policymaking was tough. Using that particular example, this essay highlights some of the uncertainties practical policymaking has to deal with. Some valuable lessons are discussed showing that policymaking needs not only careful analyses but also fast decision-making and strong leadership.

Since oil price and devex are two of the most crucial factors affecting NPV and GT, thus both factors will be used to explain Indonesia’s fiscal flexibility and neutrality in more detail.

The Obama administration must conduct a single comprehensive assessment of our nation’s infrastructure. This survey would link the information that already exists within the agencies so it would look systematically at the needs and vulnerability of U.S. transportation, electricity, water, ports and other strategic infrastructure and identify pressing infrastructure needs nationwide. The survey would then help the administration develop a strategy to promote efficient and rapid deployment of advanced infrastructure at the national

Our transportation system, quite arguably, may embody our most vital system, as Infrastructure and Democracy clarifies, “access is the hallmark of a great infrastructure” (Jones, Reinecke). By great contrast, our roads remain a current issue. 42 percent of America’s urban highways remain congested, costing the United States 101 billion dollars in wasted time and fuel each year. Also, the32 percent of roads, in poor or mediocre condition, cost the average traveler $324 per year (American Infrastructure Report Card). Unfortunately, updating the highway systems seems longer than it may seem, as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that from proposal to completion most highways will need nine to nineteen years to fix (Leduc, Wilson 129). In addition to the roads, our bridges are failing just as much. One of every nine bridges within the United States is categorized as structurally deficient. The average bridge 42 years old, and in order to eliminate the bridge renovation backlog, our country would need to invest twenty and a half billion dollars until 2028 (American Infrastructure Report Card). However, in 2013, the United States only invested 12.8 billion dollars in bridge reconstruction and repair (American Infrastructure Report Card). Also, our countries transit

It is no secret that the nation’s infrastructure is aging and weathering quickly. Our highways, bridges and main roads, predominantly in older regions or areas are in dire need of restoration. These issues can abruptly lead to potential safety and traffic concerns and results in barriers for our individual means of transportation and logistically, our means of transporting goods. Reasons that are preventing us from accomplishing the goal of reconstructing the nation’s infrastructure comes down to determining financial liability. Currently, Infrastructure comprises of the structures and systems that we rely on and cannot afford to live without. It is vital, yet easy to overlook or take for granted. We, Americans have not been taking good

Indonesia is the sixteenth largest economy, the largest economy in the South-east Asian economic region with the world's fourth largest population (263 million in 2017). It is an emerging economy that has increased its international integration, trade liberalisation and diverted from policies of import substitution towards export-led development. Indonesia is a member of the Group of 20 (G20) major economies and has been an active founding member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The impact of globalisation has benefited Indonesia as quality of life indicators and economic developments have improved but it also presents the challenge of improving regulations, building more competitive industries, increasing investment into education and infrastructure to remain competitive. Consequently, Indonesia has introduced numerous strategies to promote economic growth and development.

Indonesia complained of their lack of autonomy In regions such as Maluku or other areas of Eastern Indonesia, “a low capacity for generating local revenue restricted the ability to adapt projects and development to local conditions” (Bertrand, 198).). The scanty amounts of funds were unable to support the poor and other problems. Bertrand states, “Faced with the New Order regime introduced mild reforms that were designed to address some technical issues while avoiding political decentralization” (Bertrand, 198). In 1995 the Minister of Home Affairs selected 26 districts were used to evaluate the measures designed to increase autonomy. They noticed an increase in Indonesia budget, but they still failed to support the poor, which resulted in

Planned infrastructure in itself enhances growth of the economy in terms of productivity of labour and also places the economy on the pedestal for growth to a developed state. The strategic location and management of space with respect to the structures (physical) in the economy when planned will lead to workers- for instance, being able to put in more labour-hours of work. The effects are very easy to observe in the services sector where lateness of personnel

In terms acceleration of economic growth is based on the measurement of GDP, MALAYSIA HAS recorded a growth of 5.1% last year. Although it is lower than 7.2% in 2010, but it was so roaring in the context of a difficult global economic environment and uncertainty. In contrast, global economic growth has dropped from 5.2% in 2010 to 3.8% in 2011 while the economy of the developed countries like USA, Germany, UK, France and Japan also recorded weak growth of respectively 1.5%, 2.7%, 1.1 %, 1.7% and -0.5% in the same year; far lower than Malaysia's achievements. Following a satisfactory GDP growth was assisted by the Federal government revenue increased by RM13.2 billion in 2011 through increased collection of IRB estimate of RM109.7 billion compared with RM96.5 billion the government has managed to reduce its fiscal deficit to 5.0% compared projection of 5.4%. This means that the GOVERNMENT has successfully steered the nation's economy as well as the control and management of public funds wisely in the past 3 years in a row when managed to bring down the fiscal deficit from 7.0% in 2009 to 5.6% (2010) and 5.0% in the past year in a expanding economy.