Mayor of Sorong Calls the Expansion of South West Papua the Solution to Accelerate Development

Mayor of Sorong Drs. Ec Lambert Jitmau, MM fully encourages the acceleration of the expansion of the South West Papua (PBD) region into a New Autonomous Region (DOB) in West Papua Province.

This step is considered to be able to accelerate development in Papua, especially in the bird's head area.
 
Lambert emphasized that after the Legislation Body (Baleg) of the Indonesian House of Representatives passed 3 Draft Laws (RUU) related to the formation of a new province in Papua into law.
 
The three bills regulate the formation of the Provinces of South Papua, Central Papua, and Central Highlands Papua.

"This is not the will of the regents/mayors of West Papua, but this is purely the will of the people, who have been fighting for almost 19 years, we only continue and fight for the aspirations of the people themselves, and on May 8, 2018, the Governor also confirmed us as the expansion team for PBD candidates," said Lambert, Wednesday (11/5/2022).
 
"Basically we are in West Papua, Sorong Regency, South Sorong, Maybrat, Sorong City, Tambrauw, Raja Ampat, in total we strongly agree that this expansion can be carried out and accelerated," continued Lambert.

He emphasized that the expansion in the West Papua province must be accelerated to encourage accelerated development, improve services, equity and community welfare, and support governance.
 
Considering the various obstacles related to development in West Papua, one of which concerns the wide coverage area.

Lambert realized that so far the government has made various efforts to support development in West Papua, such as through improving infrastructure, the Special Autonomy Fund (Otsus), and various other efforts.
 
However, due to the wide area of West Papua, these efforts have not yielded maximum results in achieving the target of community welfare.

"With such an area, like it or not, like it or not (the expansion must be accelerated)," he explained.

On the other hand, continued Lambert, the West Papua region has various potentials that can support expansion, both in the food sector and other sectors.

In addition, he said, the security aspect in the area is also considered to be well maintained. Therefore, the expansion in the West Papua region needs to be encouraged.

“In the Greater Sorong Region we live in peace. And all the people in the Land of Papua agree to the division. Because Papua is an integral part of Indonesia," said the Mayor of Sorong, who is also the head of the PBD Provincial Expansion Acceleration Team.

SOURCE: https://teropongnews.com/walikota-sorong-sebut-pemekaran-papua-barat-daya-solution-menshoring-percepatan-pembinaan/