Aceh and Nias by end of 2007

Three years on

Three years ago a tsunami wrecked Aceh province and Nias district, killing over 100,000 people and practically wiped out all buildings, infrastructure, farm lands and public facilities.

If there was something that taught us about the major disaster—some say the biggest in the last 100 years—it must be about solidarity. As soon as the news about it spread, domestic and international humanitarian aid came although at first it was extremely difficult just to get access to the victims. The results—although still unsatisfactory to some people—today among other things are the construction of more than 100,000 houses to replace those destroyed in the disaster, over 2,000 kilometers of roads and about 800 schools. In total, international donors have spent no less than US$4.6 billion to rebuild Aceh and Nias while the government also poured in quite a large amount of funds.

All these have led to the revival of socio-economic activities in the tsunami-stricken areas. However, next year most of the volunteers and the donor agencies will wind up their activities and so will the Aceh-Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (Aceh-Nias BRR).

Therefore, unless a “transitional period” is well put in place, it is likely that the full recovery process will be affected.

Worries, after all, have been aired by a lot of people over the possibility that everything will crumble after the aid organizations—and their funds—are gone. In other words, it is imperative that Aceh and Nias start spinning their “development engines” by themselves.

And they can only do so when investments—not aid—do come. The challenge, therefore, is to lure investors quickly especially during the transitional period so when the Aceh-Nias BRR and all those donor agencies cease their activities, all socio-economic activities in the province and district can still run at the expected speed and level.

However, there is no new or magic formula in attracting investors. This means, Aceh and Nias must—like the rest of Indonesia—always make sure that all the laws are abided by, political squabbling is phased-out, graft is eradicated, infrastructure is available, land and property ownership is well-guaranteed, and bureaucracy is simplified.

Only with such measures that investors will be willing to come.