RI's Irony Makes Sad: A Maritime Country With Extensive Forests, But Its Economic Contribution Is Still Low

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani expressed her concern for the management of natural resources in Indonesia, especially in the fisheries and forestry sectors, which are considered to be quite minimal in contributing to the formation of gross domestic product (GDP).

This was conveyed by the Minister of Finance when speaking at the VII 2022 Indonesian Forestry Congress (KKI) forum in Jakarta today. According to him, the forestry sector only contributes around Rp. 91 trillion to Rp. 112 trillion a year to state revenues. That figure is only equivalent to 0.6 percent to 0.7 percent of the national GDP.

“This means that we, who have extensive tropical forests with a GDP contribution of less than 1 percent, feel something is wrong. There are definitely things that we have to work on together," he said on Tuesday, June 28.

The Minister of Finance added that similar conditions also occurred in the maritime sector. He said that Indonesia, which has a large territorial waters, should be able to benefit more from its geographical conditions.

“Just like fisheries, we consist of fisheries (maritime countries) and forestry but their contribution to GDP is almost nothing. Something is not right, it means," he said.

According to VOI records, the fishery sector's Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP) until May 2022 only contributed around IDR 526.6 billion of the total book amounting to IDR 224.1 trillion in the realization of the latest APBN.

Meanwhile, the largest contributor to PNBP is still dominated by energy sector commodities, such as coal, palm oil, nickel, and so on.

For this reason, the Minister of Finance invites all related parties to strengthen collaboration to optimize the economic potential of the maritime and forestry sectors.

“This is what we need to start thinking about, is this a regulatory issue, is it a governance issue, or is it an institutional problem. Because, in general, if there is a problem, it is around it,” he said.