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resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is going all-out to improve the country’s human capital in the final year of his first term in office, with human development a key priority of the proposed 2019 state budget.

The government would increase state spending next year by 10 percent to Rp 2,439.7 trillion (US$166.63 billion), Jokowi stated in his financial note address on Thursday, with the budget to be geared toward strengthening social protection programs and upskilling workers.

Addressing the House of Representatives, the President said Indonesia’s most important asset was its people.

“Therefore, the government will not only prioritize infrastructure investment but also investments in upskilling workers,” Jokowi said during his speech on the 2019 budget.

For example, the proposed budget includes a 12.3 percent increase in the education budget to Rp 487.9 trillion, higher than the 7 percent increase in the previous year’s budget.

The education sector was also a priority of infrastructure development, Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said following Jokowi’s speech, adding that Rp 6.5 trillion from his ministry’s budget of Rp 110 trillion would go toward building or renovating schools across Indonesia.

A total of Rp 17.2 trillion has been earmarked for numerous ministries to conduct vocational programs, including programs run by the Industry Ministry and the Tourism Ministry.

Furthermore, Jokowi has boosted the proposed budget allocation for social assistance by 32 percent to Rp 381 trillion in 2019, as he seeks to lower the poverty rate to 8.5 percent from 9.8 percent recorded in March.

“The government is committed to giving social protection guarantees, particularly for the 40 percent poorest citizens,” he said.

Regional and village funds will also be increased to Rp 832.3 trillion from Rp 763.6 trillion in 2018, with a 21.6 percent increase in the village fund budget to Rp 73 trillion.

Between 2015, when the village fund program was established, and 2017, a total of Rp 127.2 trillion had been utilized to build 124,000 kilometers of village roads, 791 km of bridges and 38,300 units of clean water access equipment, among others thing, said Jokowi.

Nevertheless, the loudest applause Jokowi received was when he announced he would give a five percent average raise for the salaries and pensions of government employees.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati justified the move, saying that the government had not raised the incentives in the past two years.

While the President maintained his stance on infrastructure development as a foundation of economic growth, the budget draft proposes only a 2.4 percent increase in the infrastructure budget to Rp 420.5 trillion from Rp 410.4 trillion in 2018, a far cry from the 65 percent increase between the 2014 and 2015 budgets.

“We will make many breakthroughs to accelerate infrastructure development in the country using non-budget funding schemes involving private parties,” said Jokowi. Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) economist Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara said Jokowi’s decision to emphasize people-based policies in his final year followed the trend of previous leaders who also sought reelection.

“These strategies, on the other hand, could also be [Jokowi’s] answer to boosting household consumption,” Bhima told The Jakarta Post on Friday evening.

Center of Reform on Economics (CORE) Indonesia executive director Mohammad Faisal, meanwhile, argued that social assistance was not relevant to boosting the consumption rate, as the category of people who received the assistance made up only 17 percent of overall household consumption.

However, Lana Soelistianingsih, a University of Indonesia lecturer and chief economist at Samuel Asset Management, offered a different perspective, saying the government might be attempting to meet the targets it had set at the start of its administration.

With Jokowi focusing on infrastructure development in his first three years in office, the multiplier effects have not grown as expected, as the infrastructure projects have failed to create sufficient labor-intensive employment. Furthermore, the growth rate of the economy has not increased after the completion of the projects.