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View all search resultsIndonesia can surpass Vietnam’s 8% growth
Indonesia's energy, critical minerals, agriculture and biodiversity-linked industries offer multiple growth vectors if managed with policy coherence.
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A worker in protective gear uses a tool to scoop molten metal on Sept. 16, 2025, at Harita Nickel’s smelting facility on Obi Island in South Halmahera, North Maluku. (AFP/Daeng Mansur)
Vietnam’s recent achievement of near 8 percent gross domestic product growth has understandably drawn regional admiration.
In Southeast Asia, where most economies are struggling to regain pre-pandemic momentum amid geopolitical fragmentation, inflationary pressures and slowing global trade, such a figure stands out.
Yet headline growth numbers often conceal as much as they reveal.
As highlighted in recent analysis in The Business Times, Vietnam’s performance must be read alongside six underlying metrics that complicate the picture: heavy reliance on foreign firms for exports, dependence on imported inputs, uneven domestic sector participation, credit expansion risks, delays in public investment execution and electricity consumption growth that lags reported economic output.
These metrics do not negate Vietnam’s success. Rather, they provide a more sober benchmark for assessing whether other ASEAN economies, particularly Indonesia, can match or even surpass such growth on more structurally sustainable foundations.
The answer, contrary to prevailing pessimism, is yes.
Indonesia is uniquely positioned not merely to emulate Vietnam’s 8 percent growth, but to exceed it, precisely because it is better placed to outperform Vietnam across these six metrics.
