On 14 April 2021, the DKI Jakarta Province as a Host City of UCLG ASPAC Secretariat held the opening ceremony of the series of Development Plan Deliberation meetings or Musrenbang to discuss, evaluate progress and follow up on ongoing and remaining programmes related to the development of Indonesia’s capital city. This meeting is regulated in Law no. 25 of 2004 concerning the National Development Planning System and regulated by the Minister of National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas).
As far as economic growth goes, DR (HC) Airlangga Hartato, MMT, MBA as Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs said that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global “Unprecedented Crisis,” putting great pressure on the global economy for the past year, including Indonesia’s with a 2,1% dip in national GDP. However, he added that despite challenges and setbacks, such as the spikes in active COVID-19 cases in the beginning of this year, there has also been improvements.
“The past year have been challenging, however, we can look forward in recovery efforts. For example, the percentage of active cases in Indonesia is currently at 6.90%, which is lower than the global rate, which is still at 17.36%,” he said.
DR Airlangga also highlighted more good news such as the relatively speedy acceleration in vaccination. “As of 13 April 2021, 15.6 million dozes have been injected in Indonesia and I say this is good spirits considering that we are a not a vaccine-producing country,” he said.
Considering that notion, DR Airlangga mentioned, “Along with the recovering global economy, several sectors in Indonesia were still able to survive and grow significantly, namely the information and communication sector, health, agriculture and education services, acting as pillars for the DKI Jakarta province during pandemic times.”
Minister of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), Suharso Monoarfa also agreed that 2022 is and should be considered as a momentum for total economic recovery and transformation in the medium and long term.
“The most strategic sectors for economic recovery are among others, the industrial sector, tourism, food security, MSMEs empowerment, and of course infrastructure. For example, for economic transformation, we are committed to increase the productivity of MSMEs through financing, entrepreneurship development, easy access to marketing, and improving the quality of human resources, as well as the fulfilment of a skilled workforce, through improving the quality of vocational education,” He completed.
Responding to their remarks, Anies Baswedan as Governor of DKI Jakarta, as well as one of the Co-Presidents of UCLG ASPAC agreed that there have been improvements nationally to which he reflected into the current development progress of Jakarta.
“Previously we have just seen a macro picture of the conditions we have to face in the future, particularly when talking about COVID-19 recovery in Jakarta, I strongly call for more collaborative work between public and private sector. And considering that 2022 is also the last year of Regional Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMD) implementation, the DKI Jakarta government is going to put special focus on improvement and finalisation programmes within the RPJMD,” he said in his opening remarks.
Therefore, innovation and breakthroughs are key, especially when it comes to the welfare of citizens as the number of vulnerable groups have been increasing during the pandemic. “I do agree with Mr. Suharso, and completion of social or community-scaled programmes is a big homework for the RPJMD especially in the aspects of health, education and capacity building for MSMEs because statistically, 60% of Jakarta’s economy is supported by consumer activities especially during the pandemic.”
Finally, Anies encouraged Bappeda with the urgency to immediately start following up on the progress and completion of all programmes within the RPJMD by 2022, which could be further strengthened by asking for input from relevant stakeholders.
“Jakarta’s development and recovery is not something that the city’s local government can do alone and I do strongly recommend that we improve on regulations in such a way to encourage the private sector to move more quickly. It will greatly impact labour absorption, and local income taxes, thus also creating immediate implications for our (Jakarta’s) COVID-19 recovery,” he completed.
By KM Team
Source: www.uclg-aspac.org
