Foreign Debt Increases, The House Of Representatives Leadership Asks The Government To Prioritize MSMEs

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Azis Syamsuddin, highlighted that Foreign Debt (ULN) has increased by IDR 128 trillion or a total of IDR 6.361 trillion (41% of GDP) compared to January 2021.

Azis emphasized that the government must monitor and adjust various policies according to the dynamics amid optimism that the pursuit of economic growth in 2021 is in the 4.5 to 5.3 percent range.

In addition, the government should not only use the State Budget (APBN) instrument but must also provide support for reforms in investment activities.

"This is where the Job Creation Omnibus Law becomes a red line in actualizing the acceleration", said Azis Syamsuddin in his statement, Saturday, March 27.

In the midst of acceleration, Azis continued, it is also important to carry out prudent, flexible, and opportunistic debt management. Where the allocation of financing must be focused on the real economic sector that can grow and is labor-intensive.

"This is an effective and targeted step as an effort to maintain the balance of macroeconomic indicators as mandated by Law No. 17/2003 on State Finances", he said.

The deputy chairman of the Golkar Party assessed that the management of external debt should be pressed to reach common ground on the expected targets. In this case, the Government needs to coordinate with State-owned enterprises (BUMN).

According to him, society and the business world play an important role in accelerating economic growth.

"The resulting solutions must be measurable. And I ask to be careful in the productive spending sector. Focus on external debt to help the people and MSMEs", said Azis.

Azis added that the Ministry of Finance together with Bank Indonesia (BI) must be committed to maintaining a healthy external debt structure, by empowering tax revenues, so that they do not depend on and rely on external debt.

This step, he said, is useful for optimizing the allocation of external debt in supporting development financing and encouraging the National Economic Recovery/PEN, and financing the deficit in the State Budget (APBN) to continue.

Azis also encouraged the Government to commit to maintaining national macroeconomic stability to prevent a contraction in economic growth and an increase in external debt.

"Continue to focus on efforts to reduce the number of cases of COVID-19 transmission so that the national economy can be better maintained so as to minimize any increase in external debt", said Azis.