Alert! Indonesia Only Has 20 Years To 'Kaya Before Old'

JAKARTA - The government through the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani said that Indonesia was on the right track to become a developed country.

According to him, the current development, both infrastructure and human resources (HR), is the main capital that is included in the advanced country category.

"Indonesia already has the goal of becoming a developed country in 2045. Our income is high and avoids the middle income trap," he said at the Indonesia Data and Economic (IDE) 2023 forum, Thursday, July 20.

Srimul explained, from the external side of the Republic of Indonesia is classified as a country that is able to face a global crisis.

Some of them, namely, the Asia's financial crisis in 1998, then the world financial crisis in 2008 and most recently the pandemic in early 2020.

"Well, our next challenge is from our own internal, which is a large population. This can have a positive and negative impact," he said.

The state treasurer said the addition of productive age made the government tend to be safer in providing health budgets because the average population is still young.

It is different if you have entered old age which makes the APBN allocate larger resources in the medical sector.

Indonesia is in a profitable position because of our young demographics. Therefore, we must be able to ensure how to create policies that make their productivity high," he said.

Most recently, Indonesia was again included in the upper middle-income country (UMIC) based on a World Bank report earlier this month. It is stated that the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita Indonesia recorded an increase of 9.8 percent to 4,580 US dollars in 2022.

Previously, Indonesia's ranking had dropped to the lower-Middle Income Country/LMIC) in 2020 due to pandemic pressure.

For information, one of the main indicators of becoming a developed country is that population per capita income must be above 10,000 dollars per year.

On the other hand, economic growth must be consistent at 6-7 percent per year. If this is achieved then the goal of becoming a developed country can be achieved in 2045 or about 20 years from now

"So don't let us experience a singularity, which is that the population is starting to age," said Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.