Dream Of Becoming A Developed Country Getting More Difficult, Sri Mulyani Projects Economic Growth In 2022 To Only 5 Percent

Illustration. (Photo: Ekoherwantoro on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The government through the Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani, said Indonesia's economic growth in 2022 is expected to be at the level of 5.2 percent to 5.8 percent. This was conveyed by the Minister of Finance when delivering the Draft Budget of Revenue and Expenditure (RAPBN) 2022 to members of the House of Representatives in the Plenary Meeting.

"Indonesia's economic growth is expected to be at the level of 5.2 percent to 5.8 percent", She said at the Parliament Complex Senayan, Jakarta, May 20.

The Minister of Finance added that efforts to reach a higher level, namely 6 percent can actually be achieved. Nevertheless, the government said it was trying to be realistic considering the uncertainty persisting due to the pandemic even though the recovery trend has begun to appear.

In addition, global economic conditions are still not fully recovered which has an impact on Indonesia's economic performance due to interconnectedness through international trade. Therefore, the government continues to pursue several strategic measures to encourage the acceleration of national economic activities.

"The implementation of the Copyright Act to facilitate investment and simplification of regulations must run effectively. If this is already going well, then Indonesia's economic potential will be increased from a level of about 5 percent to a level of 6 percent per year", she said.

The conservative and realistic stance taken by the government makes the target of becoming a developed country by 2045 through economic growth of 7 percent further away from reality.

For information, the Minister of VAT/Head of National Development Planning Agency, Suharso Monoarfa, said Indonesia needs at least 6 percent economic growth in a sustainable manner to escape the middle-income trap and go to developed countries.

"These challenges can be overcome by transforming the economy from lower productivity to higher productivity", he said at a press conference on Thursday, April 29.

Suharso added, without any changes in macro-economic design, Indonesia can only achieve a growth rate of at most 5 percent.

"In our simple mathematical calculations, if growth is only 5 percent then by 2045 Indonesia will not be able to get out of the middle-income trap", he said.

Meanwhile, a country can be categorized as a developed country if the per capita income of its inhabitants has touched the figure of 12,535 US dollars.

Meanwhile, based on a report released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) 2020, Indonesia is said to have a per capita income of 3,911 US dollars or equivalent to IDR 56.9 million with a posture of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of IDR 15,434.2 trillion.