Jakarta. Indonesia and the Asian Development Bank or ADB are in talks for a possible financing scheme to fund President Prabowo Subianto’s infrastructure programs.

Deputy Public Works Minister Diana Kusumastuti recently held talks with ADB’s country director for Indonesia Jiro Tominaga. According to the state-run news agency Antara, the talks touched on the possibility for ADB to fund Indonesia’s infrastructure programs under Prabowo’s so-called “Asta Cita” that highlights what Prabowo wants to achieve during his presidency. Some of those goals include achieving food and water self-sufficiency. Just like his predecessor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Prabowo also seeks to propel Indonesia’s downstream industry development to bring more added value to the economy.

Indonesia had proposed for the possible ADB infrastructure funding to adopt a public-private partnership scheme.

“We hope that we can explore potential partnerships between Indonesia and ADB to support the national development agenda and Asta Cita, particularly in matters related to infrastructure development to support food and energy self-sufficiency. As well as water security and the downstream infrastructure development,” Diana said. 

At present, Indonesia already has several ongoing projects with ADB. Early last year, ADB approved a $419.6 million loan to expand access to safely managed sanitation services in Mataram, Pontianak, and Semarang. ADB reported that it had greenlit $1.9 billion worth of sovereign operations, which includes loans, for the Indonesian government throughout 2024. 

According to Tominaga, ADB is also providing $500 million to improve Indonesia’s irrigation systems. A project that focuses on flood management in priority river basins also gets backed by the ADB.

“We do believe that infrastructure development is one of ADB’s priorities in Indonesia. Hopefully, we can further bolster our existing partnership,” Tominaga said.