Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) calls China the king of world infrastructure. This is reflected in China’s commitment to building infrastructure before living creatures exist in the region.

Special Expert Staff to the Minister of PUPR, Firdaus Ali, explained that China could lead in this civilization because the first thing they built was infrastructure. The infrastructure that can be guaranteed, he continued, is water resources.

“So, that’s why if you search on Google ‘the biggest dam on the planet’ (there is) Three Gorges, it was massive, built in 11 years at a cost of Rp. 330 trillion, and produces electricity from hydroelectric power plants, from a single dam alone it produces 22,500 megawatts, “one dam. That makes China lead civilization,” Firdaus explained to journalists at the Red and White Cement Media Workshop at Gama Tower Jakarta, Wednesday (1/11/2023).

Apart from dams, said Firdaus, China is also aggressively building access roads. China always ensures that road access was built before human civilization existed there. This is different from Indonesia, where there must be people and demand first before road access can be built.

“Secondly, they make sure to build road access, even though there is no human civilization there yet. It’s different from us, we build it when there are already people and there is demand first. Even if we already have demand, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will be built. There will be traffic jams and so on. first (then the access road will be built),” he said.

“So they make sure, even though there are no living creatures there yet, they have built it, because they will build growth there,” he continued.

Furthermore, Firdaus shared his experience when he met and talked with former Chinese Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei several years ago. He said that he had asked China how it was able to support and feed its 1.4 billion people, where Indonesia’s population of 268 million was not easy.

“I asked China, how do you build such massive infrastructure, provide food and so on. They said that ‘we have a strong commitment to build infrastructure, because otherwise we can’t feed the Chinese people’. So, what is actually being built in China “That is, they also build in other countries,” he said.

He said that during his visit to China at that time he and PUPR Minister Basuki Hadimuljono were also invited to see the dam that China had built 4,000 years ago and is still functioning today.

The Chinese Minister of Natural Resources also asked the Indonesian PUPR Minister Basuki regarding how many dams Indonesia owns. “Then he was asked how many dams (does Indonesia have)? Mr. Basuki answered, now we have around 200-300 dams, a total of 300 dams. Then Mr. Basuki asked, ‘What about China?’,” he continued.

Then China answered, “We are indeed trying to continue building. Not many, we only have 98,000 dams,” said China.

“We have 98,000 dams compared to only 300, some of which have not yet been completed,” he continued.

“Then we went to Korea, we also asked the Korean Minister of Environment and Resources, because the area of ​​Korea is not more than the area of ​​Central Java, he said ‘we don’t have many, we only have 17,800 dams’,” he added.

Firdaus concluded that if you want to lead civilization, there is no other choice but to build infrastructure, including building dams.

“Because to ensure water security, there is no food security without water security. Everything in the production process comes from water, everything needs water, that’s why this was built massively,” he concluded.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(wur)