Boosting Certainty through Indonesia's Land Certification Program
The government of Indonesia will raise efforts to accelerate the land certification program. By 2025 it targets all land across Indonesia to be certified, hence no longer being plagued by unclarity regarding the legal status of land. Sofan Djalil, Minister of Land and Spatial Planning, said his ministry targets to issue 1.03 million new land certificates this year, followed by five million in 2017, seven million in 2018, and nine million in 2019. After 2019, the ministry targets to issue 10 million land certificates per year. Clarity about land ownership improves social justice and makes infrastructure projects less difficult.
Indonesia's 35-year-old land certification program, called the National Agrarian Operations Project (Prona), has so far failed to meet targets. Currently, not even half of all privately-owned land in Indonesia is (officially) certified. This situation causes difficulty for development projects (for example infrastructure or property development) and can lead to social problems and injustice. It are usually the middle and low class segments of Indonesian society that have not registered their land (where families have been living for many generations) at authorities.
The reason why people have not registered their land at the state authorities (National Land Agency, or BPN) could be explained by people's unawareness about the importance of certified land or due to the charges that are asked by regional officers. It is well known that regional officers want some additional money in exchange for their efforts. Indonesian President Joko Widodo recently stated that he wants this practice to end as it disturbs the economy and undermines efficiency within the economy. Authorities should make it easier for the people to register their land.
Land and Spatial Planning Minister Djalil said his ministry will employ more land surveyor officials to achieve its targets. By allowing trained non-civil servants to be included in the land measurement and certification program it aims to speed up the land certification process. The Land and Spatial Planning Ministry wants to recruit up to 3,000 land surveyors in 2017 that can assist those Indonesians who want to (officially) register their land.
Additional land surveyors are particularly needed in the numerous under-developed villages of Indonesia as well as the agricultural areas and satellite cities where land ownership is often not registered. It is estimated that there are around 60 million land certificates that still need be registered by Indonesia's Land and Spatial Planning Ministry.
Minister Djalil also announced that the government is currently preparing a "land redistribution program". Land that has the status of hak guna usaha (right to cultivate) but has expired (because it has not been extended by the original stakeholder) will be redistributed to the farmer that currently cultivates the land.
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