Surabaya, East Java (ANTARA) - Speaker of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) A. A. La Nyalla Mahmud Mattalitti has called for an increase in the production of local commodities to face the threat of global recession.

"The threat of global recession must become a priority work program of the government at the end and the beginning of next year. Mitigation and anticipation must be carried out carefully," he said here on Friday.

According to him, one of the efforts that the government can take is to boost the production of local commodities.

"The government needs to push the increase of local communities’ production and suppress the number of food commodity imports," he said.

With the high production value of domestic food commodities, Indonesia is expected to get through difficult times during an economic slowdown, he explained.

In addition, Mattalitti said he hoped that the nation would make the most of its demographic dividend.

"We have a high productive age demographic dividend; this must be managed. Because, like two sides of the same coin, it (demographic dividend) can be a blessing, it can also be a disaster if there are no jobs to absorb it," the DPD Speaker added.

He said that utilizing the demographic dividend is essential because the world economy is still expected to slow down and enter a recession.

"If it is not anticipated, the impacts that it may cause are economic growth, which will slow down, high inflation, high interest rates, and (it) will last a long time, the strengthening of the dollar, and ‘cash is the king,’" he expounded.

Earlier, Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI), Perry Warjiyo, said that the weakening of economic growth needs to be responded to with government policies so that the micro-economy can still be pushed and prepared to face a recession.

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Translator: Abdul Hakim, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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