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Free meals, green economy to drive 2025 GDP: Jokowi
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President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo (left) talks with Defense Minister and president-elect Prabowo Subianto (right) after delivering his State of the Nation Address during the annual People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) plenary session at the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta on Aug. 16, 2024. (Reuters/Tatan Syuflana/Pool)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo says the green economy and Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meals program will prop up economic growth next year by fueling micro-level business activity and boosting exports.
Delivering the annual State Budget Address before lawmakers and regional representatives at the Senayan legislative complex on Friday, the outgoing president said the free meals program would not only “improve children’s nutrition” but also ramp up regional development by involving micro, small and medium enterprise (MSMEs).
Aimed at feeding 82 million children, teachers and pregnant women, it is estimated Prabowo's signature program will cost the government about Rp 450 trillion (US$28.66 billion) a year once it is fully implemented. The plan is to roll it out in stages, and an allocation of Rp 71 trillion has been earmarked for next year.
Jokowi said in his speech that the program was one of the short-term “strategies” to “accelerate economic growth”.
The medium-term strategy, meanwhile, encompassed “strengthening downstream programs and the green transformation to increase export-oriented economic activities [that are characterized by] high value-addition and low emissions.”
The President kept the bar high for the incoming administration as he stipulated a GDP growth target of 5.2 percent for 2025, which is unchanged from its target for this year.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, meanwhile, both project 5.1 percent for Indonesia’s economic growth next year.
