Indonesia's Economic Growth Needs to be Increased

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Hatta Rajasa 

 

Indonesia’s economic growth still needs to be further increased to enable it to face the regional and global economic competition, Chief Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said.
"The economic growth should be done with equitable and sustainable principles," the chief economic minister said in his written address read out by his expert staff for business competition Supriyadi at a management conference 2011 here on Saturday.
In his written address to the conference which was organized by Magister Management of University of Gajah Mada (UGM)’s Faculty of Economcs and Business, Hatta said that in order to achieve a targeted economic growth Indonesia was still facing various challenges. The challenges include the provision of infrastructure evenly throughout the region, given Indonesia is an archipelago with diverse geographical conditions.
"Development of transportation infrastructure in particular can enhance connectivity which is one of the requirements for an even distribution of economic growth," he said.
He said another challenge is the low number of industries oriented to increasing added values. This affected Indonesian products so that their values and capacity were low.
"The quality of human resources is another challenge facing the Indonesian nation. Currently about 55 percent of Indonesia’s labor force are still graduates of elementary schools and only 8.8 percent of the work force are graduates of diploma or degree programs," he said.
According to him, to achieve growth, even distribution and high sustainable economic development, a country required the acceleration of economic transformation.
He said that it could only be done with the mindset and outlook that the economy was built with joint collaboration between the central government, local government, state-owned firms, local government-owned enterprises and private sectors in an incorporated spirit.