In this webinar, Dr Arief Ramayandi and Dr Siwage Dharma Negara discussed the challenges of laying the foundations for Jokowi’s vision, given the current Covid-19 crisis faced by the economy.
REGIONAL ECONOMIC STUDIES PROGRAMME AND INDONESIA STUDIES PROGRAMME WEBINAR
Thursday, 30 April 2020 – ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute organised a webinar on “Jokowi’s Vision and Policies for Indonesia’s Economic Development”, delivered by Dr Arief Ramayandi and Dr Siwage Dharma Negara; Dr Arief Ramayandi is a Principal Economist in the Macroeconomic Division at the Asian Development Bank, and Dr Siwage Dharma Negara is Senior Fellow, Co-Coordinator of the Indonesia Studies Programme and Coordinator for the Singapore APEC Study Centre at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
Dr Arief started his presentation with Indonesia’s 2045 vision before elaborating on the challenges surrounding it. The country has its sights set on becoming the fifth largest economy globally with an income per capita of over 20,000 USD. He opines that in order to achieve this, Indonesia would have to improve its infrastructure, human capital, investment, bureaucratic reform, and effective state expenditure. However, he pointed out certain external and internal challenges such as rising global uncertainties and protectionism, low commodity prices, regulation uncertainties, institution and bureaucracy and the ongoing Covid-19 crisis that put a real test to the administration.
Next, Dr Siwage discussed several macroeconomic trends during Jokowi’s first term; mainly GDP, commodity pricing and inflation. Subsequently, he addressed the effect of global economic sentiment on investment and trade. These will significantly impact on the country’s attainability of its 2045 vision. More importantly, he highlighted the effect of Covid-19 is exacerbated by the lack of soft and hard health infrastructure. The government also has limited fiscal resources to boost growth which is required for frontloading higher growth to reach the 2045 target.
Lastly, Dr Arief suggested two ways for Indonesia to frontload high growth: re-industrialization and revitalizing manufacturing. He explained the advantages of doing this and assessed whether the government had the capacity to carry out these methods. Additionally, he stressed upon the inclusion of health sector resilience as a national development priority. His final point was the creation of an “Omnibus Law” and continuing bureaucratic reforms in the country.