Coordinating Minister AHY focuses on developing the Bali region in four clusters

Denpasar (National Archipelagic Wire) - Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY) is focusing on developing the Bali region in four clusters.

"I want to focus on four clusters, these four clusters are efforts to develop Bali which I hope we can guard together," he said at the Bali Regional Development Coordination Meeting in Denpasar, Monday.

The Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure said the tourism sector was the main cluster, seeing that Bali tourism managed to contribute IDR 176 trillion of the IDR 319.9 trillion in tourism foreign exchange.

As many as 45.8 percent of foreign tourists coming to Indonesia in 2025 will enter via Bali, so the opportunity and challenge is how tourism continues to increase while still protecting nature from being exploited.

"Destinations must continue to be developed, but they must not be concentrated in just 1-2 areas because that will increase the burden of development, pressure on the carrying capacity which should still be available in adequate quantities," said AHY.

Second is connectivity, he highlighted traffic jams which often become a viral issue on the Island of the Gods.

The Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure emphasized that the government is obliged to prepare various alternative solutions related to regular connectivity corridors, especially in the South Bali area as a center of activity, especially during the holiday season.

Third, he saw that environmental quality was decreasing due to the large number of tourists and problems with rubbish, water pollution and coastal erosion.

"Not to mention that we are talking about abrasion which is also threatening our beaches, our shores, and reducing productive land, including those we have to maintain rice fields," he said.

The fourth focus is uncontrolled spatial planning, while the Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure places spatial planning as the commander in chief of development because if it is not measurable, problems will escalate into disasters that disrupt tourism and connectivity.