Jakarta (ANTARA) - Must refer to the National Medium-Term Development Plan to ensure that the targets outlined in the plan can be achieved, National Development Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa has said.
"The targets of national development are supposedly set as reference for targets of regional development," the minister explained at the Presidential Palace here on Tuesday. He then further explained the statement he made during a meeting with the House of Representatives, in which he highlighted the possibility of 10 projects in the National Medium-Term Development Plan not being achieved in 2024.
Every development target in the plan must be pursued through collaborative efforts involving the central and regional governments, he stressed. Monoarfa cited the stunting prevalence reduction program as one example in which the central government is aiming to bring the rate down to 14 percent by 2024. Each region needs to refer to the target in question, and they also need to have their own relevant program to reduce the rate of stunting, he said. "Hence, this stunting (reduction) needs to be paid attention to by regional governments," the minister added.
He said he expects that the issue of regional government plans and central government plans not aligning with each other does not recur. "In the future, we cannot repeat such a thing; therefore, we have to pursue the national target together. It is called 'national development targets' (for a reason), it means that it applies in all aspects," he added.
He cited the instance of COVID-19 handling in the previous two years, when the central and regional governments worked closely to suppress the number of cases, such as by aggressively promoting vaccinations.
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Such collaborative efforts need to be emulated in other programs, such as basic vaccinations, food resilience, and road development, he said. The government will assist regional governments in pursuing road development through funding from the state budget, if needed, the minister added.