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Deregulation and better infrastructure will help RI be more competitive: Jokowi
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Vice President Jusuf Kalla speaks to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo during a meeting at the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry in Jakarta. (Antara /Puspa Perwitasari )
D
eregulation and the improvement of infrastructure across the country should be extended to help the country survive amid the tougher global completion, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Speaking at a public discussion held by the Indonesian Economists Association (ISEI), Jokowi said that in the midst of global competition and a rapidly changing world economy, the government needs to be quicker and more flexible in making decisions.
"Our focus ahead is deregulation and infrastructure development. Even though I know industrialization is also important, the development of human resources is very important in order to be prepared, but we will proceed with deregulation and infrastructure first," Jokowi said.
Thus, the 11 economic policy packages that have been released by government since September last year have focused on simplifying and accelerating the process of licensing and fair competition.
"Our orientation should be results-oriented, but speed is also required in competition," he said.
One of the concrete efforts undertaken was to instruct the Home Affairs Minister to remove 3,000 problematic local government regulations. In total there are 42,000 regulations in the country, according to Bappenas data.
"They ensnare and limit our flexibility and speed of action. This is what we want to remove. I ordered the home minister to remove the 3,000 problematic regulations. There is no need for them to be examined again," he said.
ISEI chairman Muliaman Hadad said that what is needed to support competitive economic growth is macroeconomic stability through price stability. "In particular, the price of food and the healthy management of the state budget," he said.
The government needs to introduce special policies to revitalize the manufacturing industry and the acceleration of competitive and export-oriented manufacturing. "Increased productivity is also a key," Muliaman added.
To increase productivity, Muliaman continued, infrastructure needs investments, especially in transportation and logistics, focusing on ports and shipping, railways, roads and internet networks.
"Structural transformation is also needed to sustain growth and the reallocation of labor to added-value and higher productivity sectors," he added. (bbn)
