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.
Govt aims to reduce poverty rate to 9.5%-10.5% in 2017
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Upbeat -- Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati speaks to journalists after her inauguration at the State Palace in Jakarta on July 27. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
W
ith targeted economic growth of 5.3 percent next year, the government is expecting more employment opportunities and a lower poverty rate.
"The poverty rate is expected to decline to between 9.5 percent and 10.5 percent [of the total population] through improved poverty alleviation programs implemented in the past years," Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said at a plenary meeting at the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
She said the government aimed to improve several poverty alleviation programs, such as by expanding coverage of the social insurance program and the Family Hope Program (PKH) and by improving the distribution of subsidized food commodities so they could reach the intended beneficiaries.
“We also aim to decrease our income inequality level by improving income distribution, expanding employment opportunities, developing infrastructure connectivity and increasing the role of local and rural administrations in the country’s development," she went on.
According to Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data, 28 million Indonesians, 10.86 percent of the total population, live below the poverty line as of March 2016, down by 2.11 percent from March last year.
Mulyani said the government believed that domestic consumption and investment would be major driving forces of Indonesian economic growth in 2017.
The government would also continue to support the industrial sector through economic policy packages, which aimed to improve the investment and business climate.
"The government is currently simplifying investment procedures and licensing through deregulation to make it easier for businesspeople to do business," she said. (ebf)
