“Improved human resources for an advanced Indonesia” were the words that caught the attention of the audience when displayed on a big banner spread across a stage on which Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati was seen dancing with her staff to celebrate Indonesia's 74th year of independence. After decades of reliance on natural products, from spices, palm oil and raw ore to oil, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has reiterated his commitment to break Indonesia away from the “natural resources curse” and focus on human development. For that intention, the government has allocated tens of billions of dollars from the proposed 2020 state budget that carries the theme “state budget for competitiveness acceleration through innovation and empowerment of human resources quality”, the President said in his state of the union address on Fri...