The government has a program for airports construction with private budgets through the Government Business Entity Cooperation (PPP) scheme. However, this program is still very difficult to implement. Currently, three airports have been realized through this scheme, but are facing problems.
Plt. Director General of Civil Aviation at the Ministry of Transportation, Nur Isnin, explained that currently there are three PPP (private budgets) airport projects at the Ministry of Transportation.
First, namely Komodo Airport in Labuan Bajo, Dhoho Airport in Kediri, and Singkawang Airport in West Kalimantan. Two of the airports, namely Komodo and Singkawang Airports, are projects initiated by the government, the rest, namely the airports in Kediri, are purely private initiatives. All financing is borne by BUBU.
Progressively, he explained, Komodo Airport has signed a PPP agreement, including Kediri Airport has also been signed in early September 2022.
Especially for Singkawang Airport, is still in the preparation of infrastructure to make it more suitable for PPP. He targets the PPP Airport Project in Singkawang to start next year.
“The PPP challenge is related to the evaluation process which is repeated in stages so that it takes a relatively long time. Among others, by Bappenas, Infrastructure Guarantee, KSPI licensing by the Ministry of Finance, permission to use support by the Ministry of Finance, and others,” he said in a meeting with Commission V DPR/RI, Tuesday (13/9/2022).
As a follow-up to the long evaluation process, he has suggested that the process can be shortened to one door with the PPP. In addition to land challenges, he continued, problems commonly arise in the process of fulfilling financing or financial close due to the unpreparedness of creditors or lenders to understand the project.
Lenders need more time to learn the sponsors involved. To solve this challenge, there has also been a proposal for a stand-by lender that has been followed since the beginning of the process so that it can meet the assumptions of the PPP model. This standby lender, he said, was only chosen if the winner of the project tender did not have the appropriate lender.
Then another problem is the classic problem related to the completion of land and airport infrastructure. The PPP scheme is prioritized to reduce the fiscal burden from APBN as alternative financing through private fund management, improving quality and quantity as well as efficiency through fair competition.
In addition to the PPP scheme, the Ministry of Transportation also has a land use cooperation scheme or KSP. Based on data from the Ministry of Transportation, there are 5 airports that run KSP with SOEs, namely Tjilik Riwut Airport with PT Angkasa Pura II (Persero) or AP II, Bengkulu Airport with AP II, Raden Inten Airport with AP II, airport in Bangka Belitung with AP II , and Sentani Airport in Jayapura together with AP I. This KSP agreement was signed at the end of 2018 and 2019.
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