Action Plan Towards Soemitronomics
Amid global geopolitical uncertainty, energy crises, and fragmentation of the world economy, Indonesia faces a historic opportunity to re-establish its national economy as formulated by Professor Doctor Soemitro Djojohadikusumo.
The core of his thinking is building a national capitalism that serves the interests of the nation, with the state playing the role of director, protector, and catalyst for the emergence of national economic forces. To realise this, concrete and focused strategic steps are needed:
- Total Downstream Processing of Natural Resources
Indonesia must end its dependence on raw material exports. Therefore, the primary steps required are:
A. Building a national petrochemical industry,
B. Strengthening the battery and electric vehicle industries,
C. Developing strategic metal industries, namely nickel, copper and bauxite.
D. Building fertiliser and gas-based energy industries.
In this way Indonesia will no longer export its natural wealth as raw materials, but as high-value industrial products.
- Creating National Production-Based Conglomerates
The Indonesian state needs to foster the emergence of strong and productive national capitalists, not rental capitalism. The primary policies required are:
A. Providing long-term investment credit for strategic industries,
B. Tax incentives for manufacturing industries and
C. Establishing partnerships between state-owned enterprises and national private sector.
This model was previously successful in Japan through Keiretsu, in South Korea through Chaebol and in China through state-owned corporations. Indonesia needs to create national industrial conglomerations capable of global competition.
- Strengthening the State’s Role as Economic Architect
The state must not merely be a passive regulator but must function as designer of national industrial strategy, director of strategic investment and protector of national economic interests. Instruments that need to be strengthened are:
A. Sovereign Wealth Fund,
B. Industrial development bank,
C. National procurement policy.
- Export-Oriented Industrialisation
Indonesia must transform from a commodity-based economy to an export-oriented industrial economy. The main steps required are:
A. Development of export industrial zones.
B. Enhancement of logistics and port capacity
C. Integration of national industry with global supply chains
With this strategy Indonesia can follow the success path of Japan, South Korea, Singapore and China, which have made exports the engine of economic growth.
- Revolution in Technology and Industrial Education
Economic sovereignty cannot be achieved without mastery of technology, therefore priority steps are required for:
A. Strengthening technical and science education,
B. Increasing industrial research,
C. Building partnerships between universities and industry.
In this way Indonesia can produce engineers, scientists and technologists, which form the backbone of national industrialisation.
Conclusion
Soemitronomics is not merely an economic theory, but a strategy for national revival. Within this framework, the state acts as director, national private sector as the primary driver of production, and Indonesia’s natural resources as the foundation for industrialisation.
If implemented consistently, this strategy will lead Indonesia towards the aspirations formulated by the nation’s founders: a sovereign, strong and equitable national economy.