XINHUA/Indonesian gov't to focus on labor intensive industries
From:
JAKARTA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian government has promised to provide more attention on reviving manufacturing, service sectors, among the hardest hit by the global crisis last year so as to provide more employment, the Jakarta Post reported here on Monday.
Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said that these industries, which provide much employment, needed to be further revitalized in order to help lower unemployment rate.
"What we need to look at closely is manufacturing industries. This is our homework. The government keeps making policies to support the growth of manufacturing industries in Indonesia," the finance minister said recently.
She added that revitalizing sugar and fertilizer mills are priorities.
The minister said that the government needed to issue new policies to support the manufacturing sector, the main employer of the employment, in addition to the agriculture and service sector.
Despite the world financial crisis, Indonesia's economy grew at 4.5 percent last year, outstripping the government's target.
The minister said that the government would provide tax incentives for the business, particularly high-end manufacturers, by eliminating luxury tax.
Sri Mulyani, however, said that the impact of the purchases of new production machines would be felt only during the second half this year.
She predicted that investment growth might pick up to 7.2 percent this year if bank began channeling loans to the real sector.
The government aims to reduce the unemployment rate to 7.5 percent this year from 7.87 percent recorded by the Indonesian Statistic Bureau centre (BPS) in August 2009.
Find Article by Date