Lower competitiveness a second blow for Indonesia

Marchio Irfan Gorbiano
The Jakarta Post

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Jakarta / Thu, October 10, 2019 / 07:15 am

Workers at a garment factory in Ungaran, Semarang, Central Java, carry out short daily exercise in between work on Thursday, Oct. 3. Supply chains of the fashion industry have started to give more attention onto workers' welfare amid rising consumers' awareness on ethical production practices. (Jakarta Post/Ardila Syakriah)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration has to swallow another bitter pill at the end of its first term as the country’s competitiveness ranking fell this year, following a gloomy economic outlook conveyed by the World Bank. The World Economic Forum (WEF) global competitiveness index published on Wednesday places Indonesia in 50th place out of 141 economies, down five spots from last year, with a score of 65 out of 100, a 0.3-point drop from 2018. The decline was primarily due to stagnating performances in variables that include “enabling environment”, “human capital”, “markets” and “innovation ecosystem”. “The decline in the competitiveness index should ring alarm bells for the government to step up its reform agenda,” said Bank Central Asia (BCA) chief economist David Sumual. “[Th...

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