North Maluku And Central Sulawesi Economics Positive, Airlangga Thanks To Jokowi's Downstream Program

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto. (Photo: Aris Nurjani/VOI)

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said that the rapid economic growth of North Maluku and Central Sulawesi was considered inseparable from the contribution of downstreaming in the region.

"So in areas such as North Maluku and Central Sulawesi it is clear that it is because of downstreaming. So this is thanks to Pak Jokowi's downstream program," he explained to the media crew, Monday, February 5, 2024.

In addition, Airlangga said, when industrialization has started to produce and production will increase so that it will have a positive impact on high economic growth.

"Of course, when the factory produces, production increases, the growth will jump," he said.

Previously, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded that Indonesia's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.05 percent in 2023 followed by positive economic growth in several provinces such as North Maluku became the province with the highest economic growth from 38 provinces.

North Maluku's economic growth was recorded at 20.49 percent on an annual basis or year on year (YoY), followed by Central Sulawesi 11.91 percent.

Airlangga said that the economic growth of North Maluku and Central Sulawesi was supported by the downstream metal or nickel program compared to other countries.

According to Airlangga, compared to several other countries, the Indonesian economy is one of the countries that is growing strongly, its growth is under major countries such as China, the Philippines and Uzbekistan.

"But Indonesia is one of the countries with the highest growth in the world and with equal Vietnam," he said.

Airlangga said, in terms of controlling Indonesian inflation, it is also better to be able to hold inflation at 2.61 percent (yoy).

With this achievement, Indonesia is included in the 5 lowest-inflationed countries such as Japan, Saudi Arabia, Italy, and China.

Previously, Acting Head of BPS Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti said that the economic growth of North Maluku and Central Sulawesi was considered inseparable from the contribution of downstreaming in the region.

The main sources of growth in the two regions are the processing industry, as well as mining and quarrying.

"The industries, which are indeed quite large in the two provinces, come from the mining stem processing industry, especially the ferronickel industry in the two provinces. So it can be concluded that industrialization or what we call the nickel downstream program in the two provinces has an impact on fairly high economic growth in the provinces of North Maluku and Central Sulawesi," said Amalia.