TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Presidential campaigns eye eased approach to local content policy
The economic teams of all three presidential candidates have told an Apindo event that a gradual approach to achieving the local content target would help boost economic growth, downstream development and investments.
Change Size
Presidential candidates (from left) Prabowo Subianto, Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan take part in the third election debate on Jan. 7, 2024 at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) indoor stadium at the GBK Sports Complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta. (Antara/Aditya Pradana Putra)
The economic teams of all three candidates contesting the 2024 presidential election have pledged to take a gradual approach to implementing the local content requirement (TKDN), a policy that both domestic and foreign investors have often pointed to as a hindrance to doing business in Indonesia.
While the campaign teams of Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar and Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD all acknowledge the importance of developing local industries, they also recognize the need to take a flexible approach with regard to the country’s limited production capacity.
“Achieving the 70 percent local content requirement target should be gradual, slow, and we must learn from neighboring countries,” Wijayanto Samirin, economic spokesman of the Anies-Muhaimin campaign, told an event on Monday featuring the three teams, hosted by the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo).
“We want to support domestic economic growth by pushing through the local content requirement, but the [industry] ecosystem isn’t ready yet,” Wijayanto explained.
“We must be patient for Indonesia to flourish, like we did in the automotive sector,” he added.
Read also: Prabowo vows to hike local content requirement
Drajad Wibowo, economic spokesman for the Prabowo-Gibran campaign, told the Apindo event that the pair wanted the same thing, underlining that implementing the TKDN policy should be done in stages.
