Jakarta (ANTARA) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the government would allocate whatever amount of funds was needed to subsidize public housing development as long as the money was used properly.
"There is no problem with subsidy, the government will provide whatever amount of funds is needed as long as it is used properly," Kalla said here on Thursday when officially opening a meeting of the Association of Housing and Resettlement Developers (Aperti).
Kalla said housing development for the people was a must because it was one of the indicators of economic growth.
He said government subsidy for public housing development was continuing to increase while on the other hand bank interest rates kept on dropping. These indicators meant that more houses could be constructed, he said.
"In the past, the commercial bank interest rate was 18 percent, and currently it`s around 13 to 14 percent. So, the government`s subsidy was 8 percent, and now it is only between 3 and 4 percent. The rupiah`s nominal is the same but there is more that can be paid," he said.
He called on national banks not to hesitate to give credits for low-cost housing development.
"There is no bank that has gone bankrupt because it has been extending credits for low-cost housing development. In fact, those that did go bankrupt were those that provided credits for the building of malls and luxurious houses," he said.
He also dismissed views which said that public apartments were not in accordance with the culture of the Indonesian people.
"Many people said that apartments are not in accordance with our culture. In fact, apartments do fit it (Indonesian culture)," Kalla said.
He cited the `gadang` (big) houses of the Minang community in West Sumatra and the long houses of Kalimantan as examples of low-cost apartments.
The difference was that the gadang and long houses were extended sideways, while the low-cost apartments were constructed upwards, he said.
Kalla called on Aperti to develop low-cost apartments in the country`s cities, instead of constructing individual low-cost houses because of the available space was limited.
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