President Jokowi Tells Administration to Accelerate Domestic Product Spending

President Jokowi accompanied by Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung in delivering directives to all ministers, heads of institutions, regional governments, and SOEs, commanders of military regions, chiefs of regional police, and high prosecutor generals at JCC, Thursday (09/29). (Photo by: PR of Cabinet Secretariat/Rahmat)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has ordered his administration to follow up the Proud of Indonesian Product (BBI) affirmative action by accelerating the realization of commitment to domestic product spending.

The President made the statement while giving directives to all ministers, heads of institutions, heads of regional governments, heads of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), commanders of military regions, chiefs of regional police, and high prosecutor generals at Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) on Thursday (09/29).

“In this difficult economic situation, the State Budget and regional budgets, which we obtained from taxes, from customs and excises, from non-tax state revenue (PNBP), from SOE dividends, must not be used to buy imported goods after they are transferred to regions,” he said.

The President particularly underscored spending on products of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and cooperatives while expressing appreciation for the increasing number of MSMEs and cooperative products listed on e-catalog, an online shopping application for government procurement of goods and services.

“I am happy. Thank God. I set a target of 1 million [products] by the end of the year. Now, there are more than 1 million MSMEs and cooperative products listed on the e-catalog. Beforehand, it was only 50,000. The number skyrocketed,” he said.

The President also ordered heads of regional governments to foster MSMEs and cooperatives in their respective areas, so more products will be listed on the e-catalog.

“I order all heads of regional governments to continue to foster MSMEs, cooperatives in their respective regions so that many of them are listed on the e-catalog,” he said.

On that occasion, the President also highlighted a number of central and regional government institutions as well as SOEs with a low spending on domestic products.

“Those with zero spending probably have not spent their budgets on domestic products or have not made a report, so please report it soon. Some SOEs are among those institutions. We have the figures now. We can check,” he remarked.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan pointed out that since April 2022, his coordinating ministry has monitored the implementation of BBI affirmative action on a daily basis.

“The realization of domestic product spending by ministries/institutions/regional governments and SOEs reached Rp468.29 trillion or 49.97 percent of the Rp937.20 trillion commitment. There are more than one million products listed on the e-catalog at the end of 2022. There are 1,204,487 products. With such a trend, we can reach more than 1.5 million by the end of the year,” he said.

Luhut also expressed hope that BBI becomes a massive movement across ministries, institutions, regional governments, and SOEs.

“We all hope that this action on domestic product spending will be the spending style of the Government and the people. For example, goodie bags at events of ministries/institutions, SOEs, and regional governments no longer contain imported products. Let’s consistently prioritize domestic products, especially those of SMEs and cooperatives. That way, we have helped improve the people’s productivity to reduce poverty,” he remarked. (RF/MAY/FID/UN) (DH/MUR)