VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Deputy Minister of Finance Suahasil Nazara stated that Indonesia is currently working to continue to improve the economy in order to achieve the Golden Vision of 2045 while still prioritizing handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

This vision is for Indonesia to target gross domestic product or GDP to reach seven trillion US dollars, so that it is able to become a country that is included in the top five world economic powers by 2045.

"Our point of view is that Indonesia continues to improve its economy to achieve its golden vision of 2045," he said in an online discussion in Jakarta.

Suahasil said the government remains focused on handling the pandemic because it has caused a crisis that hinders the government's efforts to achieve Indonesia's target to become a developed country by 2045.

He said that in fact, the situation in January this year was quite optimistic, but when the pandemic began to enter the country, namely in February, March, until now it has caused enormous changes in the economy.

"We see very basic changes due to the pandemic, but we are still on the path for Indonesia 2045, a developed country," he said.

He explained that the first quarter of this year experienced a deep pressure, which was only able to grow 2.97 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic from the usual up to 5 percent.

Then, in the second quarter of 2020, the pressure was increasing in the economy, which contracted by 5.32 percent due to the large-scale social restriction (PSBB) policy to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, in the third quarter, there has been a recovery in economic activity, although it is predicted that it will still experience contraction, but not as deep as the previous quarter.

"We will keep on track of progressing Indonesia, but still handle the pandemic," he said.

Therefore, Suahasil said that the government continues to strive to make the economic transformation in order to maintain the recovery that has occurred and to pursue Indonesia's vision of becoming a developed country by 2045.

According to him, economic transformation must still be carried out in the midst of a pandemic so that when the crisis has ended, Indonesia is ready to step further and jump forward.

He said the economic transformation was carried out by taking into account the composition of the Indonesian economy, namely household consumption which contributed 57 percent of GDP, investment contributed 30 percent to GDP, and government spending.

"Government spending is still the foundation, but after the pandemic is over, then the economy is advanced. We expect consumption and investment to increase" he said. (Antaranews)