Being The Spearhead Of The Nation, Erick Thohir Invites Millennials And Gen Z To Help Indonesia Get Out Of The Middle Income Trap

Minister of SOEs, Erick Thohir. (Photo: Doc. Ministry of SOEs)

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir asked the younger generation to prepare and improve themselves in the current era of competition. Because, according to Erick, the younger generation is the spearhead of the Indonesian nation to get out of the middle income trap or middle class income.

Furthermore, Erick said that in the future, more jobs will be filled by sectors related to technology and digitalization. These include start-ups or startups, health tech, programmers and others. In fact, according to Erick, we have entered the metaverse era.

According to Erick, the government's strategy must also slowly move towards a knowledge-based economy so that it is not always fixated on the natural resources (SDA) sector. According to him, in a knowledge-based economy, innovation and capability are the main keys.

Therefore, Erick invites millennials and Gen Z to work together to help Indonesia escape the trap of middle-class income countries. Moreover, in the next few years Indonesia will face a demographic bonus.

"Of course, through a knowledge-based economy, Indonesia must have human resources who are really skillful, competent, and also technologically literate. This is intended so that the younger generation of Indonesia can encourage our nation's economy so as not to be trapped in a middle income trap condition," in the 'Weekend' event. Millennials Upgrading', Tuesday, April 5th.

Erick often highlights the role of young people today. Especially in the digital economy. The potential of Indonesia's digital economy is very large, even reaching a value of IDR 4,500 trillion until 2030. Therefore, Erick admits that he is worried that this potential will be exploited by other countries.

To avoid foreign capitalists from entering the digital market in the country, Erik asked state-owned companies to encourage the younger generation to take part in the technology ecosystem. This role is in the form of facilitating millennial creative ideas that are realized in one digital platform.

"It means of course we know, this demographic bonus that 70 percent of our population is filled by Gen Z, so of course it's a different thing like today and this is a productive age, therefore we really have to rely on changing our economic strategy going forward based on no only with natural resources. But knowledge-based economy will be important in the future," he explained.