JAKARTA, July 25 — World Bank Group President Kim Jim-yong said today that Indonesia needs to nearly double its public spending on infrastructure and bring in more private investment to fill an infrastructure gap of US$500 billion (RM2.14 trillion) in the next five years.

Kim said Indonesia's population was growing faster than those in China, India, Vietnam and Thailand, which was putting even more strain on its creaky infrastructure.

"We estimate that Indonesia will have to invest US$500 billion over the next five years to fill this infrastructure gap. To start, that means increasing central and sub-national infrastructure spending from 2.4 percent of GDP today to 4.7 per cent, almost doubling as a percentage of GDP, by 2020,” Kim told an infrastructure conference in Jakarta. — Reuters