Sri Mulyani Revealing the Secrets of the Republic of Indonesia to Get Out of Middle-Income Countries

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani. (Photo: Screenshot of CSIS Indonesia Youtube)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani, said Indonesia is currently one of the countries in the middle-income category. According to the Minister of Finance's records, 190 countries around the world are members of the group.

“But we all know that the majority of countries stop developing at this level and create a middle-income trap phenomenon. Only about 20 countries have managed to get out and turn into developed countries”, she said when he was the keynote speaker at the CSIS 50th Anniversary webinar, Wednesday, August 4.

However, the Minister of Finance emphasized that the middle-income trap situation has been studied and is not impossible to avoid.

“First is the ability of a country to invest in human resources (HR). This is the main role that is believed to be able to bring out the middle income and rise to become a high-income country”, she said.

The Minister of Finance added that the resolution of human resources problems in the current pandemic situation cannot be separated from the problem of handling health.

"Reforms in the fields of education and health are the two main cores that can bring us out of the middle-income trap", she said.

The second is the improvement of the country's infrastructure. In this case, the Minister of Finance sees that the development of facilities and infrastructure is not only a matter of building facilities but how infrastructure can be attended in the right ways.

"It is important to remember how developed countries can develop sustainable infrastructure, where funding sources are not only from the government but can also be invited from the private sector", she explained.

The third is being responsive and concerned with climate change issues. According to Sri Mulyani, Indonesia is one of the nations in the world that plays an active role in pursuing climate control measures.

This is evidenced by the commitment to ratify the Paris Agreement as a contribution to global life.

“A world experiencing climate change will inevitably experience turmoil. This is the importance of our contribution to global life by the mandate of the nation's founders, which is to participate in carrying out world order", she said.

For information, the dream of becoming a developed country is a long-term government plan that is expected to be realized in 2045 or precisely on the commemoration of Indonesia's 100th anniversary.

However, the pandemic situation seems to have made the Republic of Indonesia's steps towards achieving this dream even more difficult. This is reflected in Indonesia's per capita income dropping from $ 4,050 in 2019 to $ 3,870 in 2020.

The book made Indonesia's achievements sag from the category of the upper-middle-income country to a lower-middle-income country.

Meanwhile, according to the World Bank, developed countries have a per capita income of around $ 11,000 to $ 12,000.