Nusa Dua, Bali (ANTARA) – Deputy Minister of FinanceSuahasil Nazarahas outlined five new sources of long-term economic growth in Indonesia that could support people’s welfare.”Last year, Indonesia’s economic growth was 5.3 percent and this year, (it) is targeted at 5.0 to 5.3 percent,” he said at an international seminar on credit assessment in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Friday. The first source of new economic growth is the downstreaming of natural resources with high added value, he informed. Raw natural resources in Indonesia must be processed within the country, both in the short and the long term, to create more investment and new jobs, he said. The next growth source is the use of local products, which is targeted to reach 95 percent in 2023 with spending on local products reaching around Rp1,171 trillion, he added. In his presentation, Nazara said that as many as 3.4 million local products have been registered in the electronic catalog or e-catalog. The third source of economic growth is the acceleration of the digital economy given that Indonesia accounts for around 40 percent, or US$77 billion, of the total value of digital economic transactions in Southeast Asia, based on the 2022 e-Conomy South East Asia Report. Nazara said he believes that Indonesia’s digital economy transactions will continue to growconsidering that they are currently up 22 percent compared to 2021. In addition, the green economy and energy transition as well as the strengthening of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) could serve as new sources of economic growth, he added. MSMEs are one of the pillars of Indonesia’s economic structure, he noted. Indonesia has 63.9 million micro businesses and they account for around 99.62 percent of the total businesses in the country, he said in his presentation. However, around 45 million small and medium enterprises still need additional financing, he highlighted. Of that number, as many as 18 million small and medium businesses, including ultra-micro, do not have access to finance, based on an analysis made by Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) in 2022. He expressed the hope that credit assessments from alternative credit assessment providers (ICS) would provide a breakthrough for MSME owners and help them access finance.
Source: Antara News Agency (ANA)