Airlangga Reveals SEZ Development To Digital Economy Becomes Big Homework For The Aerospace

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said that the Investment Management Agency (BPI) Daya Anagata Nusantara (Dantara) has a strategic role in supporting national economic growth.

Airlangga said the Government is targeting Indonesia's economic growth by 2025 which is set at 5.2 percent and in 2026 it will reach 5.4 percent.

"But next, we have to grow 6-7 percent and we hope that in that year Danantara will no longer be on the runway, it has started flying. Now this is the key," said Airlangga at the 1st event of the Prabowo-Gibran Government, Thursday, October 16.

He also revealed that President Prabowo paid special attention to the development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) which were considered to still have great potential to be increased.

In comparison, Vietnam has developed a SEZ covering an area of one million hectares, far beyond Indonesia.

"Well, this is also homework for Danantara as well. Because the Danantara in it is industrial areas and so far the industrial areas owned by the government are much smaller than those owned by the private sector," he explained.

Airlangga added, one of the main factors driving economic growth is investment and export and import activities.

The government will continue to accelerate these sectors, including through the development of SEZs in various regions.

"Then also the downstream government continues. Both in terms of nickel. We know that our nickel has succeeded in increasing one of the success stories. From 2016, exports were only around 4 billion US dollars and last year it had reached 30 billion US dollars. So this is certainly one component of economic growth is investment and export-imports. Now this is what is planned to be encouraged," he said.

Furthermore, Airlangga also encouraged Danantara to also play an active role in strengthening the national digital economy.

"Well, this is what Pak Pandu might be as the Chief Investment Officer of the Danantara. This is very overloaded to be able to invest to boost the digital economy going forward," said Airlangga.

Airlangga said the government's commitment to strengthen the national economic foundation, one of which is through cooperation in local currency transactions or Local Currency Transaction (LCT) with several partner countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, China, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates.

He explained that an LCT system that is integrated with digital payments such as QRIS allows Indonesians to carry out cross-border transactions without relying on US dollars or credit cards.

In fact, according to Airlangga, the current use of QRIS has exceeded the use of credit cards in the country.

"QRIS apparently overtook the use of credit cards, so various operators began to see how fast we could move," he explained.

Dia menyebutkan, jumlah pengguna QRIS kini telah mencapai 56 juta, yang mencerminkan ketahanan ekonomi digital Indonesia.

"Jadi kita mempunyai resilience. Jadi jangan khawatir di bidang digital itu kita kalah,” tegasnya.

He said the number of QRIS users has now reached 56 million, reflecting the resilience of Indonesia's digital economy.

"So we have resilience. So don't worry about losing in the digital field," he said.