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Defense budget could be casualty of COVID-19
Defense analyst of BINUS University Curie Maharani expects the government's prioritization of COVID-19 relief efforts to put a squeeze on Indonesia’s defense spending, which she said could affect the country's achievement of its Minimum Essential Force (MEF) target.
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Upgrades: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said the government aims to modernize Indonesia’s primary defense systems. (Tempo/-)
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s it is almost certain the COVID-19 outbreak will put a squeeze on Indonesia’s defense spending, the government must confront the two-pronged challenge of rethinking its defense strategy priorities while also shifting its attention to non-traditional security threats.
With the COVID-19 outbreak continuing to take a toll on the healthcare system and the economy, the Indonesian government will have to prioritize spending on relief efforts, a move that will put a strain on the defense budget and could affect the achievement of the Minimum Essential Force (MEF) target, defense analyst Curie Maharani of BINUS University told The Jakarta Post.
“The reallocation of the budget for COVID-19 [response] could affect the implementation of new [defense] contracts, which in turn could increase the contract backlog. This could result in a delay to the achievement of the MEF target,” Curie said
The MEF is a medium-term plan introduced by then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2012 to modernize the Indonesian Military’s (TNI) obsolete weaponry. Yudhoyono had expected that by the end of his second term in 2014, the Indonesian Military (TNI) would have achieved 30 percent of the MEF target.
The TNI is expected to meet the current MEF target by the end of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s second term in 2024.
Under current circumstances, Curie said the government could look to “cost-effective alternatives” to maintain the level of readiness set under the MEF scheme. She said that faced with the current budget constraints, the government could explore the option of leasing defense equipment from other countries, as purchasing secondhand equipment could incur high maintenance costs.
Read also: Indonesian defense industry feels COVID-19 pinch
