President Joko Widodo said he wanted the prices of oil fuel and other essential goods in the mountains and border areas of Papua to be the same as in other regions of the country.

"We want the people in Papuas border area to be proud of their country as the border areas have been developed as a front verandah of the country," Jokowi said addressing the annual meeting of the Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR) here on Wednesday.

The annual meeting was held one day ahead of the countrys independence day celebration on August 17.

The president also said people in other border areas such as the islands of Miangas of North Sulawesi and Rote of East Nusa Tenggara also need to be more aware that they are part of the nation.

"We want the people of the island of Miangas to feel the presence of the Unitary State of Republic of Indonesia (NKRI) through the Programs of Healthy Indonesia and Smart Indonesia Cards, and Program of additional foods for babies and pregnant women," he said.

Meanwhile, the people of Rote island are expected to benefit from infrastructure development there and smooth connectivity and a cut in logistic cost, he added.

"We want the quality of life of the Indonesian people to improve. We must not be too quick to be satisfied although our Human Development Index has increased - from 68.90 in 2014 to 70.18 in 2016,"he said.

He said the government still needs to seriously address the imbalance in income, adding the countrys gini ratio index had been cut from 0.414 in September 2014 to 0.393 in March 2017.

"I am confident that only through fair distribution of economic development we could strengthen the national integrity. Equitable development would keep us united in facing global competition," he said.

In October last year, the president launched the program to set the oil fuel price in Papua the same as in the rest of the country. Previously prices in Papua were much higher than in the countrys other regions.

At that time oil fuel price in Papua was as high as Rp100,000 per liter as against only Rp7,000 per liter in Java.

Source: ANTARA