Economist laments govt's lack of economic vision

JAKARTA (JP): The government does not have a comprehensive or coordinated plan to achieve its long-term development targets, economist Mari Pangestu said yesterday.

Mari, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, suggested the government should consider whether its previous targets had been achieved.

"It's like making a budget, someone must do some checking... We never do that," Mari said at the sidelines of a seminar on the upcoming Seventh Five-Year Development Plan.

Mari said that without a comprehensive plan and thorough evaluation, Indonesia would continue to face the same old problems.

"Deregulation and facilitation measures are fine and should be continued, but there are certain things that still need to be resolved, such as the issue of a high-cost economy," she said.

"We have the (ongoing) Second Long-term Development Plan. We have all the targets, but we don't have a plan on how to achieve them -- at least not in a comprehensive and coordinated way," she said.

Mari considered the government's second 25-year development plan, which started April, 1994, was mostly a compilation of figures and guidelines which had no clear assumptions as their basis.

"If there were assumptions to accept, and if we decided to accept them, we should then ask ourselves how can we guarantee those assumptions will be met," she said.

Mari said the government's current economic policies were too vague.

She said the government seemed to lack a long-term vision for developing its economic policies and strategies.

"The government may have a leading industry, but what does leading industry mean? You don't get anything from the government, there are no subsidies, no special programs. What does it mean?" she asked.

Such ambiguities, Mari said, should be clarified, for example, by stipulating that human resources development should focus on the so-called leading industries.

She compared Indonesia with neighboring Malaysia, which recently launched its "Vision 2020" plan.

"Even though the outcome may not turn out exactly as planned, at least there is a map and a strategy for every aspect of development such as human resources, industry, social development and environment," she said.

Mari said if the government was capable of setting up a comprehensive and well-coordinated long-term plan, businesses would readily follow it.

"If the government gave a clear signal, businesses would have no choice but to go in that direction," she said.

She said comprehensive planning would result in a business climate that helped domestic businesses compete globally.

She said businesses would be able to make their own scenarios on how their products and services should fit into the frameworks of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free Trade Area, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group and the World Trade Organization. (pwn/rid)