JAKARTA, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government is to buy land on behalf of developers, allowing them to circumvent the torturous process of acquiring land, an effort to smooth the progress of infrastructure development, a paper said here Saturday.

    "Land will be acquired by the government once someone has won a tender. The winner will just need to repay the money spent by the government," Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto quoted by the Jakarta globe as saying.

    Officials will revise a presidential decree issued in 2005 that regulates partnerships between the private sector and the government in infrastructure-development projects before year end.

    Current regulations require private businesses to acquire the land for infrastructure projects. The government merely provides a guarantee to pay back the money if the project fails.

    Investors and government officials who buy land for infrastructure projects regularly complain about the protracted process under current regulations, blaming speculation and unclear and contradictory regulations for slowing it down.

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