Indonesia has been on a stable growth trajectory for several years. Java and Bali, in particular, have grown significantly faster than the eastern parts of Indonesia. This is leading to ever-increasing regional income disparities between Java and Bali and the eastern provinces. Eastern Indonesia has enormous potential to develop new sources of sustainable and inclusive economic growth in sectors such as fishing, agro-industry, and tourism. However, this potential cannot be fully realized due to a lack of key infrastructure such as electricity supply, ports, roads, and communications networks. To improve this situation, the government had made accelerating infrastructure investments, including in the remote and eastern parts of the country, one of its main objectives as part of the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2020-2024, with rural electrification playing a key role. The program built on this goal:
Although nationwide electrification was already at 99% by the end of 2019, electrification rates in eastern Indonesia, i.e., in some areas of Sulawesi, Papua, and North Kalimantan, were 80% or less. A key reason for this was the limited availability and quality of the power grid. The project presented here aims to address this.