REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The National Economic Committee (KEN) has suggested that the Indonesian government improve the country's industrial and economic structures for the sake of its current account, which has recorded a deficit for the past eight quarters.
"We must improve our supply side to avoid importing large quantities of goods when our economy grows fast," KEN Chairman Chairul Tanjung said during a seminar on Tuesday.
Realizing that the industrial and economic structures cannot be improved in a short period of time, he stated that the government must commence such an initiative soon.
The government should also avoid deep economic growth as it will only boost unemployment and poverty rates, which will eventually disrupt economic stability as a whole, Chairul noted.
He added that huge energy subsidies had reduced the flexibility of the state budget to boost economic growth.
"Indonesia must think of a way to address energy subsidies properly, including infrastructure development," he said.
Chairul also suggested that the government improve the mechanism for disbursing budget funds, since Indonesia had faced the issue of budget absorption for the last five years.
"Many efforts have been made to improve it. However, the disbursement of budget funds has not made any significant progress," he said.
The government must keep improving the mechanism of disbursing budget funds in order to have a more significant impact on national economic growth, Chairul said.