Thomas Reveals The Reason Prabowo Is Confident That Indonesia's Economic Growth Reaches 8 Percent

SERANG - Deputy Minister of Finance II Thomas Djiwandono said President-elect Prabowo Subianto is optimistic that Indonesia's economy has the potential to grow 8 percent during his leadership period.

According to Thomas, the 8 percent economic growth target is not easy to achieve because it still needs to be aware of the potential for global fragmentation.

"Almost all of his current explanations regarding the economy agree that we have the potential to 8 percent. So, optimism is clearly embedded in his thinking but he is optimistic that with an understanding that our global state and global fragmentation must remain vigilant," said Thomas in the media gathering of the Ministry of Finance 2024, Wednesday, September 25.

Thomas said that to achieve this economic growth, the Prabowo government will also encourage new sectors that can encourage economic growth such as strengthening food security, energy transition, digitization and others.

In addition, Thomas said that President-elect Prabowo also has superior long-term programs that have an impact on economic growth such as the free nutritious eating program which is a long-term investment in human resources (HR).

Even so, Thomas said, optimism should not be too excessive because it could endanger economic resilience so that he helped maintain the state budget deficit at a safe level.

"The 2025 state budget really sees that, the food is maintained in a certain deficit. If we are too optimistic it can also endanger the resilience. So there are both optimistic, yes, but also the understanding that we must be vigilant, that is where the 2025 state budget shows this principle," he explained.

Thomas said that the 8 percent economic growth target is a target for the five years of President-elect Prabowo Subianto's administration and to achieve it will take time gradually and have a new economic growth engine.

"Please understand that 8 percent is not next year, 8 percent is the target of Pak Prabowo's government, that's 5 years," he said.

However, Thomas said it was impossible to achieve the desired economic growth target without having a new source of income and this became one of the homeworks of the cabinet performance of President-elect Prabowo Subianto to find this.

"It is impossible for us to reach higher numbers than what has been announced if we are not looking for a new growth engine. Now what is the new growth engine, that is the big homework of Pak Prabowo's upcoming cabinet," he said.

Thomas said that currently the government is also exploring new sources of economic growth in almost all economic sectors, one of which is developing downstreaming.

"Almost all of these sectors are being investigated, downstreaming has been said many times that it will be continued, it will be deepened through other mining commodities. But we know that if we only look at the sector it is also impossible," he said.

Thomas assessed that the Indonesian economy is very dependent on public consumption, so to encourage this, new investments are needed in other sectors to encourage consumption.

"Pak Prabowo often talks about energy transitions. But also what we previously explained was that the impact was broad, but we also have to look for, see other sectors that certainly provide good employment, yes. It is also a challenge but something is also a reference in the future," he said.

"The point is once again that 8 percent is not overnight, that is a target that President Prabowo will ask for in the new cabinet," he added.