Friday October 30, 12:06 AM
Indonesia targets investment boost
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised Thursday to boost investment by removing red tape blamed for slowing growth in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.
He said investment would rise to 2,100 trillion rupiah (216 billion dollars) over his last five years in office, or about 30 percent of gross domestic product, compared to 27.7 percent currently.
Such a level of investment would be needed to achieve the government's target of seven percent economic growth by 2014.
"We need investment of about 2,100 trillion rupiah over five years," the liberal ex-general told the opening of a two-day meeting of national political and business leaders.
"We should engage in 'debottlenecking'. We should eliminate the clogs... If it's the law or a regulation, then we will arrange and improve them. If it's the people, then they'd better step aside," he said.
The government also aims to cut unemployment from 8.1 percent to 5.0-6.0 percent, and poverty from around 14 percent to 8.0-10 percent, Yudhoyono said.
Most of the investment would come from local private entities as well as "partner countries".
Foreign direct investment in Indonesia amounted to 14.87 billion dollars in 2008, compared to 10.30 billion the year earlier.
Poor electricity supplies across the vast archipelago of 234 million people, traffic jams, overlapping regulations and a lack of entrepreneurial spirit were among the biggest obstacles to investment, Yudhoyono said.
"One of the secrets to achieving the best results in growth, jobs and poverty eradication is to improve entrepreneurship," he said.
"Indonesia has been regarded as having a small number of entrepreneurs. Less than one percent of the population is in the category of entrepreneurs."
The government will also disburse 20 trillion rupiah each year in the form of microcredit programmes for small enterprises to free up liquidity and increase economic activity, the president said.
"It's a lie when people say all things are great here. There are many things that are still bad. There have been improvements but we still have a lot of homework to do," he said.
The government has predicted growth of 4.0-4.5 percent this year, third only to China and India in the G20 club of rich and major developing countries.
Yudhoyono was sworn in for his second five-year term last week after winning more than 60 percent of the vote in a three-horse race in July polls.
-- Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this story --
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