Indonesian human development far below ideal level
JAKARTA (JP): Amid the success story of economic development, human development in Indonesia is still far below the ideal level, chairman of the Central Bureau of Statistics Sugito said yesterday.
After opening a seminar on human development, Sugito said that human development in Indonesia is quite slow because the country focuses its development more on economic growth, stability and equitable wealth distribution.
"It is difficult for any country to really develop if it neglects human development," Sugito said. "We should now pursue human development more rather than economic growth."
Sugito said it is time to pursue human development because it is mandated by the state guidelines produced by the People's Consultative Assembly.
"I see the right direction set in our second long-term development program (to end in 2019). It gives more priority to human and technology development," Sugito said.
According to the United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) 1995 human development report, Indonesia ranks 104th among 174 countries surveyed in terms of human development achievements.
"We should keep it in mind that the UNDP measure, known as Human Development Index (HDI), is something new, and there are still wide debates on it," Sugito said. "And we are not satisfied with the methodology developed by the UNDP to measure it."
With its human development report, the UNDP is trying to introduce a new paradigm to measure the performance of a country's development.
It claims that the new measure covers more than just economic growth, basic needs, social welfare and human resources development. It also covers aspects on enlarging people's choices.
It has three main indicators to estimate its HDI, comprising life expectancy and health, knowledge and skills as well as opportunity to implement knowledge and skills.
Since the HDI was introduced in 1990, indicators to measure human development have been extended to include human freedom and gender empowerment measures.
Indonesia's Central Bureau for Statistics is developing an Indonesian version of HDI to measure the country's human development.
Like the UNDP's, Indonesia's HDI also has three indicators -- life expectancy, adult literacy rate and average years of schooling. It also measures purchasing power parity. It does not include human freedom or gender empowerment indexes in its HDI calculation.
With its preliminary efforts to formulate Indonesia's HDI, the Central Bureau of Statistics revealed that human development in the country is still below par.
According to 1993 data, the HDI for Indonesia's 27 provinces averaged below 60 from the ideal figure of 100. Of the 27 provinces, Jakarta ranked first with the highest HDI of 57, followed by Riau, Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan and North Sulawesi with 52 each. East Timor's HDI was the lowest with 36.
"Such relatively low HDI for the whole country is closely related to the low level of the purchasing power parity index in most provinces," the statistics bureau said in its initial HDI report.
The highest purchasing power parity index was recorded in Jakarta at 14.8, far from the ideal number of 100. Other provinces which recorded a purchasing power parity index of over 14 included West Sumatra, Riau, Yogyakarta, Bali, South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan as well as South Sulawesi, while Southeast Sulawesi's was the lowest at 4.1.
Indonesia's schooling index was also relatively low, with only Jakarta reaching a schooling length index of over 50.
The life expectancy and literacy indexes were relatively high.
Life expectancy indexes in most provinces exceeded 60. Jakarta and Yogyakarta, for example, had life expectancy indexes of about 70.
The literacy index was the highest among the other indicators with a number of provinces recording over 90 in literacy indexes. They included North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, Bengkulu, Lampung, Jakarta, South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, North Sulawesi and Maluku. (rid)