Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, on Thursday outlined five efforts that Indonesia needs to make to achieve its goal of becoming a high-income country.
“Our dream, our vision, is to become a high-income country by 2045,” he noted during the 4th Indonesia Fintech Summit 2022 here.
Indonesia’s current per capita income is around US$4 thousand, and the country is seeking to increase it to US$10 thousand by 2030. The minister opined that Indonesia can achieve higher per capita income.
The five efforts outlined by Pandjaitan for achieving high-income country status include controlling the pandemic and recovering the economy amid various global challenges.
Many people do not realize the complexity of handling the COVID-19 pandemic, and Indonesia is one of the countries that has quickly done it, the minister pointed out.
He recalled that he was criticized for not imposing lockdowns, and had told the President that he does not believe in them.
According to Pandjaitan, measures to control the pandemic should be undertaken by observing the people’s mobility and vaccinations, and, in the end, using teamwork to overcome it.
The second effort would involve changing from a commodity-based to an industry-based economy, while the third would concern improving efficiency through digitalization.
Improving efficiency through digitalization can reduce corruption since it arises from procurement, he explained.
The next step would involve strengthening economic resiliency by increasing village funds.
He highlighted that Indonesia’s economy has grown thanks to the US$500 trillion in village funds allocated to 74 thousand villages for seven years.
He highlighted that every year, almost US$1 billion is spent on villages to make them resilient. At the summit, he also asked the Indonesian Fintech Association (Aftec) to be more careful about this.
The fifth effort would be to increase Indonesia’s income per capita as well as gross domestic product (GDP) from US$1.3 trillion to US$3.5 trillion by 2030 by reducing the impact of climate change through decarbonization and energy transition.
The minister said he is optimistic that Indonesia can achieve this target given its advantage as the largest archipelagic state with the world’s largest nickel reserves.
Indonesia also has the second-largest tin reserves in the world, the seventh-largest copper reserves, as well as 437 gigawatts of renewable energy potential.
Source: Antara News