Economy Is Like A Football, We Are Starting To Fight Vietnam And Myanmar

Workers are seen completing the process of making a soccer ball. (Photo: By courtesy)

JAKARTA - Head of the Legal and Organizational Bureau of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs I Ktut Hadi Priatna said that Indonesia is considered to have started to lag aggressively in developing the investment and economic climate compared to several neighboring countries in the ASEAN region.

For example, the Vietnamese government's strategy of managing its industrial atmosphere openly is bearing fruit by absorbing investment from several large domestic corporations. According to him, this strategy provided many benefits and had an impact on Vietnam's status as a strategic investment location in the region after China.

Meanwhile, Myanmar, which several years ago had begun to open up to democracy and investment policies, was considered the New ASEAN Darling and was considered to have great potential to grow like other Indochina countries, namely Vietnam.

"Myanmar is now a little choked up because it is experiencing a political coup. Meanwhile, Vietnam continues to advance because the investment climate is good there, and many large companies set up factories in the country. It's like soccer, we often lose to Vietnam. If Thailand, Malaysia don't ask, it is almost certain that we will lose”, he said in a virtual seminar, Tuesday, March 30.

Priatna added that the government responded to this condition by rolling out reforms in the field of labor and business regulations as stipulated in the Employment Creation Law (UU).

"Through the Job Creation Law, the government actually has a big goal to improve Indonesia's competitiveness in terms of creating a more conducive economic condition. The hope is that investors will be more interested in investing and our economy will be more motivated for the recovery process during the current pandemic", he said.

Quoting data released by the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, manufacturing activity in two Southeast Asian countries, namely Thailand and Vietnam, has become quite strategic in supporting the economy. This is then correlated with the stability of the financial system which tends to be maintained.

Thailand is known to have a budget deficit of 5.2 percent throughout 2020. Meanwhile, Vietnam is at the 6 percent level. Meanwhile, Indonesia last year was said to have experienced a fiscal deficit of 6.3 percent.

"The government hopes that in the long term the Job Creation Law can have a positive impact on the business world and expand job opportunities so that the target of Golden Indonesia in 2045 can be achieved", he concluded.