Deputy V Chief of Presidential Staff (KSP) Jaleswari Pramodhawardani said the inauguration of Southwest Papua as a province with the issuance of Law Number 29 of 2022 was a new chapter in efforts to improve public services and welfare in Papua. "This regional division clearly proves the strong alignment of the government and DPR towards the aspirations of various elements of society, especially indigenous Papuans who want steps to accelerate welfare development in an area with a total area of 38.8 thousand square kilometers," said Jaleswari in a written statement received at Jakarta, Monday 12 December 2022. Southwest Papua Province, said Jaleswari, has various natural resource potentials, one of which is the area of four island groups known as Raja Ampat.
The province which is not only famous for its tourism appeal, said Jaleswari, also has extraordinary mining potential. Therefore, according to Jaleswari, intensive collaboration is needed between the government, religious leaders, indigenous peoples, business actors, academics, mass media, and community organizations to seek equal distribution of people's welfare in Indonesia's youngest province. "The Acting Governor must be able to build collaboration between parties, to ensure that a development paradigm that is more inclusive and puts forward an anthropological perspective, namely prioritizing the involvement of indigenous Papuans can be applied in Southwest Papua," he said. He also reminded that cooperation between the central and regional governments is important because of the increased allocation of the Special Autonomy Fund (Otsus) to 2.25% of the National General Allocation Fund and changes in the mechanism for transferring the Special Autonomy directly to districts and cities. "In addition, there are still gaps in the quality of public services, especially in Maybrat, Raja Ampat and Tambrauw, so programs to strengthen technical competence and assistance related to aspects of planning and budgeting, procurement of government goods and services, as well as strengthening mechanisms for monitoring and controlling priority programs to strengthen mechanisms prevention of corruption in the internal bureaucracy for the Southwest Papua Provincial Government must be utilized optimally," he said.
