Sri Mulyani: Mandatory Shopping For Domestic Products Potentially Creates Jobs

Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani said that the government continues to strive to improve economic capabilities and independence, especially from the small and medium enterprise sectors. Meanwhile, this concrete step is evidenced by APBN spending which is prioritized for local output absorption.

"Research on ministries/agencies, as well as local governments and SOEs to provide affirmations on domestic products, especially MSMEs," he said at a press conference at the Sixth Stage Business Meeting - Indonesia Catalogue Expo and Forum (ICEF) in Jakarta, Thursday, August 3.

The Minister of Finance noted that the number of expenditures that have been confirmed by the Government Goods/Services Procurement Policy Institute (LKPP) this year is IDR 1,112.48 trillion.

The number consists of 5.3 million procurement packages which are expected to be able to increase domestic products to be used later. This also means job creation," he said.

The Minister of Finance added that the product currently realized was IDR 387.8 trillion or 768,000 packages.

"So there is still quite a lot in the remaining six months (seconder II/2023) to use the APBN in order to strengthen the Indonesian economy," he said.

Furthermore, the state treasurer explained that in terms of e-catalog, the absorption is targeted at IDR 500 trillion, especially for MSMEs which are expected to actively participate in this scheme.

"So that MSMEs participating in e-catalog can compete in a healthy manner," said the Minister of Finance.

Citing the realization report of the first semester of the State Budget/2023, it is known that new state spending touched Rp1,255.7 trillion or 41 percent of the ceiling set at Rp3,061.2 trillion. The score grew slightly by 0.9 percent compared to the same period the previous year (year on year/yoy) of Rp1,244.9 trillion.

In detail, state spending in the first six months of this year consisted of central government spending of IDR 891.6 trillion and expenditures through local governments (transfers to regions/TKD) of IDR 364.1 trillion.