How Long is the Border Road in Papua?

During the presidency of Joko Widodo and Vice President Yusuf Kalla, there was an intensive effort to build roads in eastern Indonesia. One example is in Papua, aiming to reduce regional disparities. To improve connectivity and the economy in Papua, the government built roads parallel to the border, spanning 1,098.24 kilometers (km) from Jayapura to Merauke. Of this total, 892.3 km have been completed, and 205.9 km are still incomplete.

The road construction in the outermost region of Indonesia's easternmost province is divided into three segments: Segment 1 (Jayapura-Arso-Weris-Yetti) with a length of 128.18 km. Then Segment 2 (Yetty-Ubrub-Oksibil) spanning 301.74 km, and Segment 3 (Oksibil-Muting-Tanah Merah-Merauke) stretching 668.24 km.

For information, Papua's economy in the third quarter of 2017, based on current prices, reached Rp 51.39 trillion and at constant prices, Rp 40 trillion. Meanwhile, economic growth in the third quarter of 2017 only grew by 3.4 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year. This achievement is below the national economic growth of 5.06 percent. Cumulatively, for the first three quarters of 2017, growth reached 3.75 percent compared to the same period the previous year.