The province of Papua has a special autonomy that gives it the freedom to maximize its potential. The Government ensures that the implementation of the Special Autonomy Government in Papua is monitored and ensures that it meets the original goals of creating equality, power and development in all areas. One of the priority areas is the economy. In addition to the introduction of separate autonomy, the Papua region was again expanded into six provinces: Papua, West Papua, South Papua, Central Papua, Highland Papua and South West Papua. The six provinces are called the New Autonomous Region.
The vastness of the territory, stretching from end to end, and the abundance of natural resources, from plantations to forestry to fisheries, make the establishment of new autonomous regions an important policy. Regional governments are also formed based on various regulations that support the participation of local communities, namely the indigenous Papuan community. Each local policy is also formulated in the interest of the local community. One of the things that the government continues to strive for is to continue to improve the economic level in each region of Papua, including the Central Papua region. Various policies were issued. Including government aid to improve the economy of the community through economic training.
The potential of Central Papua is enormous wealth in the field of natural resources, namely mineral resources. Mining is an industry that drives the economy by extracting gold, silver, copper and nickel. National and international companies are also located in Central Papua. For example, Freeport Indonesia, international companies which has been around for decades and is still around.
In addition to exploiting the potential of natural resources, the people of the central Papua region also host micro, small and medium enterprises. The skills that the community possesses are crafts, which come from their ancestral culture. Some crafts are produced and displayed at various events to attract buyers, such as woven tree bark, as well as noken. The government provides training and digital marketing support to increase the income of the people of Central Papua.
The various potentials for economic improvement in Central Papua have produced positive results. Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency, during 2023, Central Papua being the province with the highest economic growth compared to other provinces which they are New Autonomous Regions. Central Papua is a New Autonomous Region which has the highest economic growth throughout 2023, namely 5.95 percent. As a comparison, Highland Papua experienced economic growth of 4.78 percent, South Papua 4.27 percent, while South West Papua 1.82 percent with a contribution to the total ADHB GRDP from 38 provinces in Indonesia of 0.12 percent, 15 percent, and 0.18 percent.