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Maintaining resilience in Jokowi’s second term

Winarno Zain (The Jakarta Post)

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Jakarta

Tue, May 28, 2019 Published on May. 28, 2019 Published on 2019-05-28T09:57:44+07:00

Maintaining resilience in Jokowi’s second term

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo speaks during the launch of the 2019-2024 Indonesian Sharia Economy Masterplan in Jakarta on May 14. (Antara/Akbar Nugroho Gumay)

T

he Indonesian economy has proven to be resilient amid slowing global growth and a tumultuous world market. Although there are some vulnerabilities that still raise concerns, several macroeconomic indicators show that the economy is doing reasonably well.

But to maintain economic resilience, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo needs in his second term to address several issues that have plagued the economy for so long.

The first is the weakness of the manufacturing sector, whose growth fell significantly to 3.9 percent in the first quarter of 2019, the lowest level since the third quarter of 2017. Growth declined despite the 17 economic packages that Jokowi issued to strength the manufacturing sector.

The manufacturing sector, the largest component in the gross domestic product (GDP), and the largest source of employment, seemed to have been sidelined by investors, as the commodity boom before 2013 had attracted them to the commodity sector. When the commodity boom ended, the country was left with a weak manufacturing sector. Reinvigorating manufacturing growth should be high on Jokowi’s agenda.