Maintaining resilience in Jokowi’s second term

Winarno Zain
Commissioner in a publicly listed oil and gas service company

PREMIUM

Jakarta / Tue, May 28, 2019 / 10:48 am

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)

The 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...