Economic growth in Central Sulawesi is forecast to grow at a double-digit rate next year, outpacing the national economy.
Bank Indonesia (BI) believes the regional economy may expand by between 11.8 percent and 12.2 percent in 2017, driven particularly by the price recovery of nickel, the province’s main export commodity.
Such a robust growth will be more than double the country’s overall economic growth, which is expected to maintain a sluggish outlook by rising at only around 5 percent.
“Various opportunities will still be wide open [for Central Sulawesi] in 2017,” said the director of BI’s Central Sulawesi representative office, Miyono, during a year-end press conference on Saturday.
(Read also: Rp 7.2t needed to develop special economic zone in C. Sulawesi)
Central Sulawesi’s economy, which is primarily driven by the liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing industry and nickel smelting activities, gained at a fast pace of 15.08 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of this year, according to BI's report on regional economy.
The expansion will remain at near double-digits in the fourth quarter although the figure may not be as high as the previous quarters, hovering between 9.6 percent and 10 percent. That will be spurred by infrastructure development and inflows of new private investment driven by government stimulus packages, the central bank predicts.
Separately, Central Sulawesi Governor Longki Djanggola said that to maintain high economic growth, his administration planned to optimize potential non-resource based sectors, including agriculture, animal husbandry and tourism, which is a new driver of growth. (lnd)
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