Indonesia wants to lift itself to middle income status. To do so, the Ministry of National Development Planning, Bappenas, has estimated the country needs Rp5.5 quadrillion $385 billion in infrastructure development between 2015 and 2019.
But there is also a more pressing need to sort out the country’s transportation bottlenecks, which add to the cost of doing business. The country has roughly 2.5 million young people entering the workforce each year and it needs to keep growing at an estimated 7% per annum to provide them with jobs.
Edward Gustely has been working at the sharp end of infrastructure finance in Indonesia for more than 20 years....