Media Release
19 December 2016
Nusa Tenggara Barat Governor TGH Muhammad Zainul Majdi expressed his appreciation to Australian Government’s support in a ceremony as part of the province’s 58th anniversary today.
The Australian Government has provided AUD 17.2m grants during the period of 2013-2016 to the NTB provincial government as part of the province’s successful implementation of the DFAT-supported Provincial Road Improvement Maintenance Project (PRIM).
The occasion was marked by handing over a dump truck, asphalt machine and compactor – bought using Australian incentive grants to NTB PRIM.
Australian Embassy’s Minister Counsellor for Economic, Investment and Infrastructure Steven Barraclough said the Australian government was committed to support local government units in Indonesia to improve their capacity to build and maintain infrastructure.
“We’re proud to be a key part of the joint team, which has made undisputable improvements to the condition of provincial roads across NTB. The PRIM approach to road maintenance has been designed so that it can eventually be replicated across all local government units, and the pilot project in NTB has now proven so successful that national government authorities are keen to start that wider roll-out in 2018, one year ahead of schedule – a huge success and an achievement that, in NTB, we can all be proud of,” said Minister Counsellor Barraclough.
Australian government has provided a total of AUD28 million funding as a mix of grants and technical assistance to improve road maintenance and strengthen governance in 2013 to 2016. Around AUD 11 million further funding has been earmarked to support the PRIM program in 2017.
PRIM changes the way that local government units manage their road maintenance function by improving knowledge of network condition through surveys, careful planning of works using specialist software to provide best value for money over the long term, and properly implementing road maintenance works across the whole network. High quality works are incentivized through the grant reimbursement mechanism by only transferring funds to the Iocal government if the required standards are achieved and independently verified.
PRIM has also led to improved community engagement and interest in monitoring and reporting road and traffic issues to relevant government stakeholders through the revitalized Road Traffic and Transport Forum (RTTF).
“It’s not enough to build good infrastructure. We have to maintain it” said Mr Barraclough. “And for that we committed local partners on the ground, as we have found in NTB”.
In November 2015 Australia announced a new $300m infrastructure program for Indonesia. This program, which was announced at the same time negotiations were relaunched for the Indonesia Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, is Australia’s investment in our economic partnership.
Media Enquiry: [email protected]
For more info on PRIM in NTB, visit http://fllaj.ntbprov.go.id/