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Ganjar aims for 7% economic growth to escape middle-income trap
Presidential hopeful Ganjar Pranowo unveils his goal to elevate Indonesia's economic growth to 7 percent, in order for the country to avoid falling into the middle-income trap by 2045.
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Presidential candidate and former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo (left) and vice presidential candidate Mahfud MD react as they arrive to attend the first presidential election debate at the General Elections Commission (KPU) office in Jakarta on Dec. 12, 2023. Ganjar said on Dec. 14 that his goal was to elevate Indonesia's economic growth to 7 percent, in order for the country to escape the middle-income trap by 2045. (AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba)
Presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo has outlined his vision to make Indonesia a developed country by 2045 by emphasizing the urgency of escaping the middle-income trap by boosting economic growth to 7 percent.
“If [by] 2045 we do not become a developed country, then we will have entered the middle-income trap. Finished. And getting to 2045 is not an easy path,” Ganjar said at the national coordination meeting of the Indonesian Consultant Association (Inkindo) on Tuesday, as reported by Antara news agency.
However, the former Central Java governor is optimistic about Indonesia’s economic growth in the future. He persisted in not lowering the economic growth target and set a 7 percent target if he was elected as the president in 2024.
"Maybe among the other candidates, Ganjar [is considered] ambitious? No. Suppose our [economic growth] is 5 percent or a maximum of 6 percent. In that case, we won't be able to catch up by 2045 to become a high-income country," said Ganjar as he repeated that it was impossible to be a high-income country if economic growth was stagnant.
According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), Indonesia’s economic growth in the third quarter of 2023 hovered at around 4.94 percent. Bank Indonesia projects economic growth will remain at 4.5 to 5.3 percent for 2023.
If this projection is correct, this would mean Ganjar will have to boost the national economic growth by around 2 percent.
Ganjar and his running mate Mahfud MD have prepared several strategies to achieve this target as outlined in their vision and mission document.
