Cabinet Secretariat Holds FGD on Structural Reforms, Economic Recovery

Online Focus Group Discussion held by Cabinet Secretariat on Friday (6/11). (Photo by: PR/ Fitri)

In a bid to exercise its functions in providing recommendations on the Government’s policies and programs to the President and Vice President, Cabinet Secretariat on Friday (6/11) held an online Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on Structural Reforms and Economic Recovery to seek inputs from various parties.

Complex regulations and complicated bureaucracy still hamper the business sector in Indonesia. In fact, Indonesia ranked first in the Global Business Complexity Index in June 2020, meaning Indonesia has the most complicated regulations and bureaucracy in the world. For that reason, the Government decided to do structural reforms, including on regulations and bureaucracy.

“COVID-19 pandemic that hits all countries around the globe doesn’t stop the Government to do structural reforms. When many developed countries experience a slowdown, it is time for Indonesia to make some leaps of progress,” President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said days ago.

Head of Development Planning, Fiscal, and Assets Management Division of the Cabinet Secretariat, Trikawan Jati Iswono, told participants of the FGD that their inputs on structural reforms are needed to increase economic productivity and free the country from middle income trap.

In 2021, he added, the Government will focus on two priority programs, namely acceleration of economic recovery as the impact of the pandemic and strengthening of structural reforms.

“For the next five years, in line with the 2020-2024 National Medium-term Development Plan, our focus is to build a strong fundamental to escape from middle income trap which is a precondition to become a developed country and fulfill Indonesia’s 2045 vision,” he said.

Trikawan expressed hope that this FGD can generate inputs about priority policy that can be made to accelerate economic recovery and strengthen structural transforms. He also explained efforts made by the Government to handle COVID-19 pandemic and to accelerate national economic recovery.

“To respond to the pandemic, the Government has issued several policies, one of which is Law Number 2 of 2020 which aimed at providing flexibility for the Government to rebound the national economy,” he said adding that the efforts will be affected by structural reforms.

He went on to say that the President has ordered the Government to review programs particularly on national economic recovery which have been implemented. Thus, the Government can improve the program and increase the effectiveness.

In addition to structural reforms and national economic recovery, the FGD also discussed projection of the economy and global and domestic financial markets in 2021, as well as assessment of domestic economic performance in 2020.

“The assessment also covers policies to handle the pandemic. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has released economic growth figure in the third quarter of 2020, though Indonesia experienced an economic contraction, we have reached a positive trend which marks some improvement,” he stated.

Also joining the FGD were among others, Deputy Director of Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department at Asian Development Bank Edimon Ginting, Vice President-Economist at Bank Permata Josua Pardede, and Lead Advicer-Economics, Finance, and Inclusion at Prospera Anton Gunawan. (FID/UN)

Translated by: Rany Anjany
Reviewed by: Mia Medyana