Jakarta, IO – The slogan “Nusantara Baru, Indonesia Maju” (“New Nusantara, Advanced Indonesia”) does not seem to apply to the transportation sector. Budget cuts are preventing Indonesia’s transportation from advancing, instead leading to setbacks. The fund for pioneer transportation projects is being reduced, with some aspects potentially eliminated.
The Ministry of Transportation, the institution responsible for transportation across the country, faces increasing challenges, due to these cuts in the 2025 state budget. Continuing crucial transportation programs will become even more burdensome.
Since 2020, the Ministry’s (Kemenhub) budget has hovered around IDR 30 trillion annually. According to the government’s report on State Budget execution for the first half of 2024, the Ministry received IDR 34.7 trillion in 2020, which decreased slightly in the following years before escalating to IDR 38.9 trillion in 2024. However, in the 2025 Draft State Budget, the Ministry’s budget falls to IDR 24.8 trillion, a 36 percent decline from the previous year.
Public-private partnership (PPP or KPBU) schemes fund many transportation projects, sharing the government’s responsibility of financing transportation projects with private entities. However, the significant budget cuts have sparked pessimism about the future of transportation development. The reduced budget of IDR 24.8 trillion is deemed insufficient.
The Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) has suffered a decline, as most development has been concentrated in Java. There needs to be more public transportation and attention given to other regions, such as transmigration areas and mining zones. These areas contribute greatly, yet they remain underdeveloped.
Public-private partnerships are particularly appealing for projects in Java. The small population outside of Java makes these places less desirable to developers, as the return on investment for businesses would be slower.
According to the 2025 Consolidated Work Plan and Budget of Ministries/Agencies, Kemenhub’s strategic policy projection for 2026-2029 focuses on developing connectivity, which includes enhancing international connectivity to support economic competitiveness and national sovereignty, while improving inter-island backbone connectivity and its support systems, to achieve parallel development.
Addressing connectivity issues should not be the sole responsibility of the central government; local governments are also expected to provide inter-regional facilities and systems. Local governments need to share the same mission to promote sustainable transportation, in line with the central government’s vision and goals.
Public transportation: an emergency
So far, transportation remains an unresolved challenge. There has been no significant development in this sector throughout Indonesia.
As an archipelagic country, Indonesia must improve its existing public transportation systems. Public transportation should be a priority in regional development. It does not have to be overly ambitious; every small step counts, such as increasing the frequency of pioneer transportation services to 2-3 times per week: this would make a meaningful difference.
While the border regions’ infrastructure has improved, transportation services remain inadequate, and village transportation has disappeared. This has impacted the school dropout rates, child marriages and stunting. People often overlook the fact that transportation is a basic need.
Pioneer transportation needs special attention. Damri buses, which connect remote areas across the country, have had inadequate facilities and infrastructure for a long time. As a result, people in remote and border areas still use old, barely functioning buses.
We have grand buildings at the border crossing posts (PLBN), as good as those of neighboring countries, yet not a single PLBN provides public transportation services—only the Cross-Border Transport (ALBN) is available.
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There is hope that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private corporations can target their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs more effectively. Instead of building parks and swimming pools, CSR funds should be targeted to develop regional transportation infrastructure, such as providing buses in mining areas, something that would greatly benefit local transportation.
Despite their campaign promises, President-elect Prabowo Subianto and Vice President-elect Gibran Rakabuming Raka have yet to solve transportation issues. They need to appoint a qualified minister who shares a common vision and mission to improve transportation with specific goals.
Transportation is not just the duty of one ministry, but requires support from several. Local governments, for example, have frequently overlooked the development of regional public transportation. Coordination between the Ministries of Transportation and Home Affairs has also been limited. Local governments could be more proactive if the Ministry of Home Affairs took an active part and oversaw transportation development efforts.