Hope There Is A Center For Economic Growth From The Eastern Region Of Indonesia

Jayapura City. (Photo: Twitter @ ponxx2020papua)

JAKARTA - The center of national economic growth in the future is expected to emerge in the eastern part of Indonesia. In this way, it is hoped that it can even out the level of welfare and economic development throughout the archipelago.

"Eastern Indonesia is the future of Indonesia, hopefully the center of growth will be contributed by eastern Indonesia," said Chairman of the Board of PT Bosowa Corporindo, Erwin Aksa in a seminar on Building Eastern Indonesia in Jakarta, Friday, January 17.

According to Erwin Aksa, currently the infrastructure promotion program that has been carried out has also made various parties look to eastern Indonesia to invest there.

For that, said Erwin who also serves as Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (Kadin), it is also very important to do various things including developing human resources.

Another speaker, President Director of PT Wijaya Karya Tumiyana, stated that his side had done a lot to develop infrastructure in Eastern Indonesia.

One of them, he said, is the development of the Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport in Makassar by multiplying the airport's capacity with the aim of making it the main aviation hub in Eastern Indonesia.

Likewise, PT Freeport Indonesia President Director Tony Wenas stated that Freeport has also carried out a lot of infrastructure development in Mimika, Papua, starting from the airport, access to connectivity to the construction of an international athletic stadium sports complex there.

Tony revealed that the construction of a sports complex that costs around Rp. 400 billion is planned in the future that the management will be handed over to the government for the implementation of PON 2020.

Previously, Standard Chartered Bank had projected the Indonesian economy to grow 5.1 percent in 2020, or higher than the estimated growth in 2019 of 5 percent.

"We estimate growth will pick up in the second half of 2020 along with the momentum for increased investment," said Standard Chartered Bank Indonesia Senior Economist Aldian Taloputra at the Investor Forum and Global Research Briefing in Jakarta, Wednesday, January 15.

This 5.1 percent growth is also projected to occur as household consumption begins to recover from price adjustments after the disappearance of the high base effects of the 2019 Presidential and Legislative Elections.

"We also project steady growth in household consumption with a healthy labor market," said Aldian.

This projection figure from Standard Chartered is lower than the government's projection in the 2020 State Budget, namely 5.3 percent, but is still within the range of Bank Indonesia's projected growth of 5.1-5.5 percent.

Aldian said Indonesia's economic growth is also in line with the growth of the global economy next year. The Standard Chartered Economist Team projects that the global economy will grow by 3.3 percent next year, slightly higher than the forecast for 2019 growth of 3.1 percent.