"This endowment fund is money that can provide support for every education, research (activity), and (meet the funding) need of all sectors to improve the human quality index," Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said here on Wednesday.
Speaking at the “2023 Mandiri Investment Forum” here, she said that she deemed the education fund as one of the most important allocations for society.
This was because the quality of a country's growth is measured based on education, among other things, thus spending on education remains one of the state's biggest expenditures, she said.
To this end, for the first time in history, the government has allocated an education fund of more than Rp600 trillion, specifically, Rp612.2 trillion (about US$40.9 billion) in 2023.
The spending allocation has come not only from the central government's spending, but also direct regional government spending to improve the quality of school management.
With this, teaching activities and support provision are expected to be implemented in a far more flexible and innovative manner.
The spending allocation comprises central government spending of Rp237.1 trillion, regional government spending of Rp305.6 trillion, and financing of Rp69.5 trillion.
Indrawati recalled that when she first took office as the Minister of Finance in 2005–2006, Indonesia's total spending budget never went beyond Rp550 trillion.
"That is the total budget. Today, the education spending total will be larger than Rp600 trillion," she highlighted.
"This is only to give you an illustration of how much budget and allocation that we continue to dedicate to improve human resources," she said.
The 12th edition of the “Mandiri Investment Forum” was held to draw investment opportunities.
The event is a platform for discussions on the development of the domestic and global economy and features globally renowned speakers.
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Translator: Agatha Olivia V, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Tia Mutiasari
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