KEIN Chairman Soetrisono Bachir, before meeting President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, informed on Tuesday that his committee would provide inputs to the head of state regarding the lowering of the banking interest rates, currently considered to be high.
He noted that the banking interest rates could be cut without any intervention from the government.
"There is a strategy for that and we will inform the president about it (strategy)," he stated.
Soetrisno pointed out that while the interest rates in Indonesia had plunged to a single digit, these could be cut further. "Banking interest rates in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand have slid to a level lower than ours. Our lending rates are still high," he argued.
According to him, KEIN is also underlining the gap, particularly in the business sector, between economic players, pointing particularly to those engaging in small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs). They are left far behind the large corporations.
"Now, the issue is how to advance the SMEs in concrete terms, not just in theory. We are proposing to ensure that oil palm farmers become self-reliant," he revealed.
He proposed that the oil palm farmers should be made self reliant through support from the government.
"Now, it is a fact that one company can control millions of hectares of oil palm plantations while farmers own no land. Therefore, there must be a program where farmers own lands so that they can be self-reliant. There must be a concrete government program, not just rhetoric about it, " the KEIN chairman urged.
Soetrisno Bachir mentioned that his side would put up a memo to the president regarding various problems. "For example, this is the fasting month of Ramadan when many problems come together, triggering a hike in food prices," he rued.
He informed that his committee has suggested that the distribution lines for food supplies should be shortened so that prices could be reduced. "We also dealt with how the state logistics board (Bulog) can play its role in controlling prices."
Soetrisno argued that there was no need to import supplies to control prices as these may not necessarily help since cartels can tinker with prices.
He mentioned that he would also provide inputs to the president about the need to maintain the economic growth, forecast at 5.0 percent, so that it is not affected by the global economic downturn.
"KEIN will provide inputs about how our economic growth should not slow down but rather increase. Our economy is forecast to grow at a rate of five percent. We will do our best to even exceed that," Soetrisno Bachir concluded. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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