When the Gate Outpaces the Road: Accelerating Border Area Development at the Yetetkun Cross-Border Post on the Indonesia–Papua New Guinea Frontier

Indonesia’s Presidential Instruction No. 1 of 2019 sought to accelerate the construction of eleven integrated cross-border posts (PLBN) and their supporting infrastructure, yet finished buildings do not automatically become functioning border development. This study analyses how the policy was implemented at the Yetetkun PLBN, Boven Digoel Regency, South Papua, and identifies its supporting and inhibiting factors using George C. Edwards III’s model of communication, resources, disposition, and bureaucratic structure. A qualitative descriptive case study was conducted with seven purposively selected informants from the local government, post management, cross-border service agencies, and community users; interview, observation, and documentary data were analysed interactively. Routine coordination, adequate core facilities, committed implementers, and clear operating procedures sustain daily border services. Implementation is nevertheless constrained by uneven staffing, the absence of permanent health personnel, poor road access and transport, limited local budgets and community capital, language barriers, and weaker infrastructure on the Papua New Guinea side. The analysis reveals a clarity paradox: the precise allocation of authority that prevents overlap inside the post fragments responsibility for the surrounding area. Acceleration therefore depends less on further construction than on measurable cross-sectoral follow-up mechanisms.