Wednesday, 30 September 2026
MEDAN | INDATANEWS.COM - The North Sumatra Provincial Government is calling for stronger coordination between the central and regional governments in development planning. The initiative includes further development of Law No. 25 of 2004 on the National Development Planning System (SPPN). The move is considered important to address increasingly complex development challenges while ensuring that planning, budgeting, implementation and evaluation of development programs are carried out in an integrated manner.
North Sumatra Deputy Governor Surya made the statement on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, during a working visit by Commission IV of the Regional Representative Council of the Republic of Indonesia (DPD RI) to the North Sumatra Governor's Office at 30 Jalan Diponegoro, Medan.The working visit was attended by 27 DPD RI members. It was held to compile an inventory of issues for the draft amendment to Law No. 25 of 2004 on the National Development Planning System. Representatives of the North Sumatra Provincial Government, as well as city and regency governments, also attended the meeting.
Surya welcomed the initiative of Commission IV of the DPD RI to visit North Sumatra directly to gather input and recommendations from regional governments. He said the national development planning framework needs to be further developed as development conditions continue to change, while increasingly diverse challenges have emerged more than two decades after the SPPN Law came into effect."Development can no longer be addressed solely through a sectoral approach. What is needed is cross-sectoral and cross-regional integration, as well as close linkages between planning, budgeting, implementation and evaluation," Surya said.
At the meeting, Surya presented six strategic proposals from the North Sumatra Provincial Government that he said should be taken into consideration in revising the SPPN Law. The first proposal concerns the clear determination of responsibilities, program locations and funding sources to address various strategic challenges at the regional level.
The North Sumatra Provincial Government considers such clarity important to ensure that development programs have measurable objectives and reflect the specific characteristics of each region. Strategic initiatives requiring particular attention include accelerating development in the Nias Islands, improving regional connectivity and expanding the downstream processing of leading regional commodities.The second proposal concerns the integration of various funding sources for development programs. The regional government proposed that the planning system be designed to enable funding from the state budget (APBN), regional budgets (APBD), state-owned enterprises, regional-owned enterprises, public-private partnerships and private investment to be linked and coordinated.
According to the North Sumatra Provincial Government, integrating funding sources is necessary to address the limited fiscal capacity of regional governments. Such a model would create greater room for financing cooperation in strategic development programs without requiring governments to rely solely on a single budgetary source.The third proposal concerns changes to the existing development model, which has largely been sector-based. The North Sumatra Provincial Government is calling for stronger linkages among production, industry, infrastructure, logistics and market access.
Such integration is expected to create a more comprehensive development chain. Development programs should not be limited to infrastructure construction or increasing production. Processing, distribution and marketing should also be strengthened to generate greater added value for the regional economy.The fourth proposal concerns the development evaluation mechanism. The North Sumatra Provincial Government is seeking to improve the existing evaluation approach, which has focused not only on the level of budget disbursement or budget absorption. In the future, outputs, outcomes and tangible benefits for the public should also be measured.
This approach would enable the government to assess program performance based on its impact on communities rather than solely on the amount of budget spent. Evaluation could also serve as a basis for improving programs that have yet to achieve their intended objectives.The fifth proposal concerns the use of data. The North Sumatra Provincial Government is calling for standardized, up-to-date and consistent data to be used from the planning stage through evaluation. High-quality data is considered an important foundation for targeted and needs-based development policies.
The sixth proposal concerns the mechanism for amending development plans that have already been established. The North Sumatra Provincial Government proposed setting clear criteria and indicators for situations in which existing plans need to be adjusted.Such a mechanism would ensure that planning can respond to various risks, including natural disasters and changes in economic conditions, without undermining planning discipline. It would provide the government with sufficient flexibility to adjust programs when significant changes occur while maintaining previously established development objectives.
Nawardi pointed to several issues that regional governments continue to face in implementing development programs. These include a decline in transfers to regions over the past two years. In addition, challenges remain in coordinating development planning between the central government and regional governments.
"Frequently, the central RKP and regional RKPD are not aligned. The same applies to the relationship between the RPJPN/RPJMN and RPJPD/RPJMD. This subsequently affects budget planning and the amount of transfers to the regions. The DPD RI is here to ensure that regional concerns and interests are represented at the national level," Nawardi said.According to Nawardi, alignment among planning documents is an important component in determining the direction of budgeting and development implementation. A lack of coordination between central and regional planning can disrupt program continuity and affect the allocation of budgetary resources to the regions.
He said Commission IV of the DPD RI would continue gathering input from regional governments regarding various obstacles to coordinating development programs. The feedback includes strengthening region-oriented planning, integrating data and evaluating the effectiveness of the SPPN Law.Commission IV of the DPD RI also aims to ensure that the revised regulations establish a planning framework that better reflects regional needs. In Nawardi's view, the formulation of the regulations must take into account the different conditions and characteristics of individual regions so that development policies are not focused solely on administrative targets but also deliver tangible benefits to communities.
The participants discussed various issues related to development planning coordination, budgeting, the distribution of responsibilities, data integration and program evaluation. The discussion also provided regional governments with an opportunity to outline conditions and development needs based on the characteristics of their respective areas.
Input from regional governments and various stakeholders forms an important part of the further preparation of the issue inventory for the draft amendment to Law No. 25 of 2004 on the National Development Planning System.The North Sumatra Provincial Government hopes that the development of the legal framework will strengthen the connection between the central government's development planning and that of regional governments. Better coordination is expected to help establish continuity among development planning, budgeting, implementation and evaluation.
Strengthening the system would also provide regions with greater opportunities to design programs according to their respective needs while ensuring that the national development agenda remains aligned with regional development priorities.Through the further development of the SPPN Law, the central and regional governments are expected to have a more integrated, adaptive and data-based planning mechanism focused on results and tangible benefits. In this way, development would not only meet administrative targets but also contribute directly to improving public welfare across different regions. (IDNC)
REPORTER: Ahmad Zulfikar | EDITOR: Fik Sagala
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