Not Only About The Transfer Of The Capital City, IKN Development Attitude, West And Eastern Indonesia's Inequality

Deputy Minister of Finance Suahasil Nazara at the "11th AIFED Post Pandemic Policy Day 2. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Deputy Minister of Finance (Wamenkeu) Suahasil Nazara believes the new State Capital (IKN) will be a catalyst for improving regional inequality in Indonesia.

"The new IKN characterizes at the same time responding to the inequality between western Indonesia and eastern Indonesia, as well as responding to the development of Java and outside Java," said Suahasil at the "11th AIFED Post Pandemic Policy Day 2" event quoted by Antara, Wednesday, December 7.

He explained that later in the new IKN, the core government complex will be built with a state budget, while the city will be built by inviting the private sector.

The development of a government center in IKN will take faster than the construction of the city. Even so, infrastructure investment in IKN will not be too large or can be said to be very small.

The construction of a new IKN, said Suahasil, will be a form of strategy in 2023, especially in continuing infrastructure development.

In addition to continuing infrastructure development, another strategy that the government will implement in 2023 is to find new sources of economic growth, one of which is downstreaming.

"We want to see more added value created domestically. So if you read the news about the export ban, that's not the goal. The goal is about downstreaming of many natural resources in Indonesia, from nickel, bauxite, and others," he said.

The next strategy, he continued, is the transition to a green economy as a way to get future growth for Indonesia. This is the reason the government is currently drafting a carbon tax in the energy transition mechanism.

Finally, intensifying digitalization in the economy is the government's strategy next year amid conditions that will be very challenging for Indonesia and will change the domestic economic landscape a lot.