Day: April 28, 2022

The National Food Agency (BPN) has prepared frozen cow and buffalo meat priced at Rp80 thousand–Rp95 thousand (US$5.52–US$6.56) per kilogram amid a surge in fresh meat prices ahead of Eid al-Fitr.

“Thus, people can have various choices and alternatives to buying meat,” head of the agency, Arief Prasetyo Adi, said in a statement released here on Wednesday.

The price of fresh beef is currently in the range of Rp115 thousand to Rp150 thousand (US$7.94-US$10.36) per kilogram, he noted.

The BPN had ensured the availability of meat and the stability of its price ahead of the 2022 Eid al-Fitr holiday period by inspecting several meat markets in Jakarta along with the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Ministry and PT Berdikari (Persero) — a part of the state-run food holding ID FOOD.

The agency head said that direct monitoring of meat prices should be carried out routinely with the state-run food holding to ensure that the people’s demand is fulfilled.

Meanwhile, president director of PT Berdikari, Harry Warganegara, said that his company had supplied 36 tons of meat per month, both frozen and fresh, to various meat markets and trading partners.

Currently, the enterprise is strengthening its supply to the public by expanding its meat distribution network.

“We have been assigned to provide 20 thousand metric tons of Brazilian beef during 2022 by the government,” the president director informed.

The company has also optimized the absorption of local feeder cattle production from a number of provinces, including Central Java, East Java, and West Nusa Tenggara, as well as imported the commodity from Australia in early April 2022 to meet domestic demand, he added.

“Currently, there are 1,481 cows which are ready to be slaughtered to meet the meat demand ahead of the holiday period,” he informed.

He added that the agency will continue to ensure the availability of the commodity, whose average turnover has reached 3 thousand cows per month.

Source: Antara News

A digital roadmap was created by the ministry to drive economic transformation according to the government’s 2023 work plan, National Development Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa stated.

“The National Development Planning Agency has created a digital roadmap for Indonesia as part of the (efforts to support) economic transformation,” Minister Monoarfa noted at the 2022 Development Planning Conference here on Thursday.

He deemed digital transformation as one of the important keys in pursuing economic transformation due to which the government was making efforts to that end.

Indonesia has a big population that makes it a prospective or potential country for the development of digital transformation in the country.

On the other hand, he reminded that Indonesia should not remain as just an avid consumer of imported digital products but also become a large digital producer that can meet domestic and foreign demands.

Apart from digital transformation, the government’s 2023 work plan also listed several major projects as a means to pursue national priorities, for which preparation was made through improvement of the clearing house mechanism.

The improvement of the clearing house mechanism in the planning process was done in order to ensure that the output of the development, in the form of benefits, could be delivered to the right targets –in this case the public– in a precise manner.

The major projects in the work plan include priority industrial areas and smelters; integrated management of micro, small, and medium enterprises; food estates; tourism destinations; and acceleration of renewable energy development and energy conservation.

The work plan also aimed for social protection reform, reformation of the national health system, vocational education and training geared towards the needs of Industry 4.0, efforts to reduce maternal mortality and stunting, as well as Papua’s traditional territory.

It also encompassed construction of the Nusantara Capital City and the integrated main port network, as well as the construction of waste treatment facilities.

Source: Antara News

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) called to increase food and energy productivity since both sectors were critical for the future.

“I urge related stakeholders to increase productivity and independence in the food and energy sectors. In future, the world will face two problems in the areas of food and energy. These are very critical,” Jokowi noted at the State Palace, Thursday.

Jokowi made the statement at the opening of the 2022 National Development Planning Conference also attended by Coordinating Minister for the Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto, Minister of National Development Planning/Head of the Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Suharso Manoarfa, Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian, Minister of State Secretary Pratikno, and related officials.

“Fortunately, we have the power here in Indonesia. Hence, to increase productivity and independence in the food and energy sector, we must focus on working together and monitoring it very well,” Jokowi affirmed.

The head of state also pressed for working towards increasing investment that would create more job opportunities.

“This will become a contest between countries. If our licensing service is not fast, both at the center and in the regions, please immediately simplify and accelerate to serve everything related to investment,” he emphasized.

Jokowi also noted that ministries, institutions, and local governments must look for alternative sources of financing.

“We can no longer depend on the state budget and regional budget. Hence, we must be creative in finding new innovative funding sources by continuously increasing investment,” he remarked.

Jokowi acknowledged that in 2022 and 2023, Indonesia will face a difficult situation as well as a volatile and uncertain global economic and political situation.

“The pandemic is not completely over. Several countries are still struggling to suppress the spread of COVID-19 with lockdown. Then, there is a supply chain disruption that has an impact everywhere,” he noted.

Moreover, the president pointed out that the world was hit by a conflict between Russia and Ukraine that caused an energy and food crisis.

“Those would cause global inflation and a decline in economic growth,” he remarked.

Source: Antara News

Indonesian Deputy Minister of Finance Suahasil Nazara has said that uncertainty is expected to remain high in 2023 because of escalating global risks, such as geopolitical and inflationary pressures and monetary tightening.

Despite projections of the COVID-19 pandemic being brought under control, the risks will still linger, especially regarding state revenues, he explained at the 2022 National Development Planning Conference here on Thursday.

“All these global risks will have an impact on state revenues but, at the same time, the state budget will continue to protect the community and be transferred to the regions,” Nazara said.

Even so, the state budget policy in 2023 will still be directed at consolidation toward realizing a deficit of below three percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), he added.

However, spending by ministries/institutions should encourage economic growth, he stressed.

Thus, government spending must be “sharpened” to make it flexible, productive, effective, and anticipatory in response to economic dynamics, the deputy minister said. “The state budget serves as a shock absorber,” he noted.

Further, the government is aiming to streamline spending in 2023, in line with the phasing out of COVID-19 handling and economic recovery efforts.

Government spending next year will also focus on flexibility in anticipating uncertainty and improving services.

Meanwhile, the 2023 state budget will prioritize increasing economic productivity through improving the quality of human resources, completing infrastructure development, and bureaucratic reform, Nazara informed.

“We design the government’s work plan; this is the direction of fiscal conditions and policy going forward,” he said.

He further said he is optimistic that the entire work plan will be realized to encourage economic recovery and protect the Indonesian people.

Earlier, Nazara had said there is a possibility that Indonesia’s inflation rate will rise to four percent in 2023.

Source: Antara News