West Papua Special Autonomy Law has ensured 70-80 percent profit from resources goes to the West Papua itself. Then, it raises the economy of West Papua and decreases the percentage of poor people.
Benny Wenda, spoke person of United Liberation Movement for West Papua/ULMWP once again spread the provocative news. Online media (The Guardian) questioning why Papua, the region of the richest resources, still remains poor and least developed compared to other regions in Indonesia. He wondered where all the profit from the resources goes. (The Guardian, 2011)
As a matter of fact, since the implementation of Special Autonomy Law, the government of Papua Province and West Papua Province have a bigger share of revenues compared to other provinces in Indonesia. Papua and Papua Barat receive 80% of forestry, fishery, and mining sectors revenue, and 70% from its oil and gas sector (Chapter 3). Papua and West Papua get to enjoy the special autonomy fund from the Central Government as well. In 2015, 10 trillion rupiahs addition fund was given. The General Purpose Fund of Papua Province and West Papua Province is bigger than the combined GPF of East and West Java, a province with 20 times the population of Papua. (Indonesia Embassy in Canberra)
In 2014, a study by ANU scholars, Budy Resosudarmo et al. found that the GDP growth of Papua over two decades (1993-2012) equaled the national growth rate (Indonesia Embassy in Canberra). The percentage of poor people in Papua Province also decreases from 34.77% in 2008 to 28.17% in 2015 (Statistic of Papua Province, 2016). The decrease in poverty percentage is followed by Papua Barat Province from 31.92% in 2011 to 25.10% in the first semester of 2017 (Statistic of West Papua Province, 2017). 2015, the economy of Papua raised 7.97%, faster than the national average 4.79% (Statistic of Papua Province, 2016).
Keyword: West Papua, Indonesia, Papua Province, West Papua Province, Special Autonomy law, Benny Wenda, ULMWP, resources, GDP, poverty, fund
