The government is now geared to help the countrys manufacturing sector become a part of the global supply chain, Bambang Brodjonegoro, minister of National Development Planning and chairman of the National Development Planning Agency, said during the 2016 Year-End Evaluation and 2017 Forecast discussion in the agencys offices in Jakarta on Saturday.
He believes that Indonesias manufacturing sector should be able to produce goods that are in demand internationally, even while maintaining production quality.
That way, the global supply chain will include Indonesia in its network.
"By becoming a part of the global supply chain, we can lessen our dependency on commodities that are vulnerable to global price changes," the minister stated.
Indonesia needs to further expand its manufacturing sector in order to be involved in the global network, as an advanced manufacturing sector is a necessary requirement for becoming a developed country.
"A prerequisite for a country to become a developed one is a minimum of 30 percent contribution from the manufacturing sector to its gross domestic product, and at the moment, Indonesia has only reached 20 percent," he explained.
It will take a long time for Indonesia to catch up and cover the remaining 10 percent, but he stated that the governments efforts in developing the countrys manufacturing sector deserves to be appreciated.
"It requires a long time, which means there are processes that need to be taken. The most important is the spirit of reindustrialization, and we should expand any parts of the sector that can be developed further," said the Agency Chief.
He further explained that the manufacturing sectors that can be expanded include natural-resources based ones, those that absorb workers, as well as automotive, consumer goods, and food manufacturing.
"These sectors hold huge potential to boost the economy, and we need to focus on them," he concluded.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
