Annoyed That There Are Still Many Imports Of Goods Procurement, Jokowi: Turning Just 40 Percent Can Boost Economic Growth

President Joko Widodo. (Photo: Doc. Antara/Secretpres Press Bureau)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) could not contain his emotions when he found out that the procurement of goods was still imported. He emphasized that government agencies' budgets should be used to buy products made in Indonesia.

Jokowi said that the procurement of goods and services for the central capital budget was IDR 526 trillion. Meanwhile, for the region, Rp. 535 trillion. According to Jokowi, the budget for the regions is much larger than the center.

Furthermore, Jokowi also mentioned the BUMN budget which reached Rp420 trillion. Jokowi said the budget was huge. It should be used to buy domestic products.

"This is a very big, very big amount of money. If we use it, we don't have to be grandiose, just 40 percent of it can be deflected, 40 percent of it can trigger our economic growth which the government and local government can do 1.71 percent. BUMN 0.4 percent This is more than 2 percent," he said during a briefing on the proud affirmation action made in Indonesia which was broadcast on YouTube at the Presidential Secretariat, Friday, March 25.

Jokowi said government agencies and SOEs should consistently buy goods produced domestically. He also admitted that he was surprised why this was not done.

"You don't have to look everywhere, you don't have to look for investors, we just stay silent but consistently buy goods produced by our factories, industries, SMEs, why don't we do it. We'd be stupid if we didn't do this. Do we want imported goods to continue? No. We can't," he said.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta believes that buying imported goods means giving jobs to other countries. In fact, said Jokowi, the money used was the money of the Indonesian people. Therefore, he emphasized that the budget for the procurement of goods and services must be spent domestically.

"If we buy imported goods, imagine that we give jobs to other countries. Our money, capital outflows. The work is there, not here. Let's try to turn everything here. The goods we buy domestic goods mean there will be investment, which means opening up jobs," he said.

"It's been calculated, it can open up 2 million jobs, if we don't do this again, we're really stupid," said Jokowi, which was greeted with applause.

Jokowi's emotions increased when he saw many applauding his statement. He said that if the budget of more than IDR 400 trillion could be spent domestically, then we could applaud.

"Don't clap. Because we haven't done it, if we do it and it's more than Rp. 400 trillion, everyone is really doing it, please all applaud. We only ask for 40 percent until May, this morning I only checked Rp. 214 trillion. Where are we going to continue? "Keep going. Try buying imported CCTV, some domestically can produce it. What the heck, we don't think that we are a developed country for CCTV to buy imports," he said.