Future Indonesia president, Prabowo Subianto has been well known for his commitment to make Indonesia a developed country. In the past, this program may have been seen as a dream but if you look at Indonesia’s progress for the last 10 years, this may become reality.
During 2 periods of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), Indonesia infrastructure and economy have increased significantly. Even during the pandemic era where the global economy has been affected, Indonesia seems to show quick economic recovery.
Future Priority Program to Make Indonesia a Developed Country Prabowo Subianto
Beside known for his military background, Prabowo is also known for his support for the current president. That is the reason why many Indonesian believe that his future leadership will create better development for the country especially in terms of the economy through his program.
If you want to know which program Prabowo wants to implement in the future. Here is the list of his priority programs to make Indonesia a developed country.
1. Preparing for Downstreaming
To make Indonesia a developed country, Prabowo always emphasized that he would continue the mining downstream program that had been implemented by the President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). He even encouraged the government to be ready to build its own smelter.
Prabowo also said Jokowi’s policy to encourage downstreaming was correct and must be continued because there is no reason for the program to be stopped. He said that state owned companies and the private sector would play a very important role in implementing the program. However, the government must also be prepared if the private sector turns out to be reluctant.
For information, during the 2011-2018 the income of the Indonesia middle class was largely supported by the manufacturing industrial sector. This makes downstream policies more reliable to the middle class who became the largest economic class in Indonesia.
Unfortunately, this program to make Indonesia a developed country also has its own problems because there are several trade-offs that need to be calculated to the targeted economic potential.
For example, this is related to environmental issues, the potential loss of state income, a decrease in production prices which has the potential to reduce added value, and the dominance of Chinese companies in nickel investment in Indonesia.
Some experts advise Indonesia to open communication with various industries, identify the suitability of each industry that wants to be pushed according to the national plan, and ensure various supports for industrial growth such as better regulations that support the local business.
2. Increasing Tax
Do you know if Indonesia is one of the countries with high taxes even though the current government plans to increase it. As the one who wants to continue the current president program, Prabowo wants to establish a State Revenue Agency to increase the ratio of state revenues to Gross Domestic Product to 23%.
Why? Because the government budget needs to be made more effective in terms of revenue from taxes and non-taxes. This tax policy reform will focus on improving the tax system and non-tax state revenues as well as expanding the tax base and other state revenues.
The Prabowo-Gibran National Campaign Team also expressed its seriousness in establishing a State Revenue Agency. They believe that the existence of this agency can increase the tax ratio, as well as make tax payments cheaper.
The idea to make Indonesia a developed country has long been put forward by Prabowo. In the 2019-2024 presidential election, he also expressed similar ideas.
According to experts, there are two ways the government can do this. First, enlarging the tax objective, in this case expanding the formal employment sector. Second, optimizing existing taxpayers.
In addition, we believe that improving the formal sector through the creation of quality jobs should be a top priority. With the formal sector to make Indonesia a developed country, the government does not need to make policies that are distorting the economy. Of course, this needs to be followed by improvements to tax administration and databases.
3. Future Food Self-Sufficiency
With the high rise of food prices, this program may look reliable. Prabowo’s target is that Indonesia’s food self-sufficiency within three years can be achieved through the construction of food estates or food barns. This program starts from village food barns to national level.
To make Indonesia a developed country, food self-sufficiency by utilizing the resources in Indonesia is an important thing and it needs to be improved significantly, especially in terms of producing alternative staple foods such as cassava, canna and sago.
Just like we mentioned before, this program will be held at various regional levels. Why? Because according to Prabowo, Indonesia could become the world’s food basket.
4. Poverty Alleviation
Indonesia actually already has many programs to reduce poverty. Fortunately, the program also does not focus solely on the economy but also to higher education. For a country like Indonesia, higher education is still considered as a privilege because not everyone can afford it.
That’s the reason why the government has a national agenda to give full scholarships for those that can’t afford higher education. In the future of Prabowo’s era, they promised to continue this program in order to reduce poverty in the future.
For information, this program to make Indonesia a developed country is expected to eliminate absolute poverty, provide lifelong social protection with a target poverty rate of below 5 percent, and a human development index above 80.
5. Development of the Education System
We know if building a country means also building its people , especially from an early age. Unfortunately, building people is not enough with education but also through healthcare, especially nutrition.
Do you know if Indonesia still faces malnutrition cases especially in remote areas? The number of this case is also quite high so it has started to become a national focus. Prabowo plans to increase Indonesian children’s health by providing them free and nutritious lunch in the school.
To make Indonesia a developed country, Prabowo seems very serious about this program since he already held many “simulations” and learned from other countries with similar programs. Nutrition assistance for children under five and pregnant women plus free lunches and milk is expected to address stunting and enhance the quality of future Indonesia human resources.
Besides health, this program to make Indonesia a developed country is also ensured to increase the quality of teachers and educational facilities. Research and innovation funds are promised to take 1.5 – 2 percent of Indonesia Gross Domestic Income within 5 years to create more innovation.
Final Words
Those are the future programs to make Indonesia a developed country looks promising from Prabowo-Gibran. As selected future president he already prepared his program. Through his program, Prabowo already showed quite significant proof and research to implement it in his leadership next year.
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