Kadin not too happy with economics team

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Confidence among the business community toward the economics team of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is gradually declining, due to its failure to reduce the high-cost economy as well as provide clear-cut economic policies for the long run.

Even a stout supporter of the economics team, the country's powerful business lobby group the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), has found the courage to openly criticize the team.

"Frankly speaking, the business community is now skeptical about the team, particularly about its efforts to address the classic problems of high-cost economy and smuggling, which have scared away investors," Kadin chairman Mohamad S. Hidayat told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The corrupt bureaucracy -- the root of the high-cost economy -- remains untouched by the reform drives promoted by the economics team.

Hidayat was commenting on the performance of the current economics team in the Cabinet -- almost a year since it took office. The comments came only days after Vice President Jusuf Kalla defended the team's performance amid criticism that it had failed to successfully tackle the country's economic ills.

Kalla said the economy had in fact seen progress under the new administration and that issues such as the weakening rupiah and the fuel price increases were attributable more to external instead of internal factors.

Hidayat was apparently not convinced.

"The economics ministers have come up with their own blueprint. However, it is not fully applicable since there are no concrete steps, time frames or parameters on how to implement it. Without that, the blueprint remains rhetoric," he said.

It is due to the lack of concrete and comprehensive planning that the economics team failed to anticipate the impact of higher global oil prices, which has in turn dealt a heavy blow to the country's hard-gained monetary and fiscal stability.

Due to the fuel price increases alone, the economic growth forecast for this year had to be slashed from 6.0 percent to 5.7 percent.

"The performance of the economics team is far from what many had expected, as it cannot anticipate changes in the economy. All of their economic assumptions have missed the mark," said economist-turned-legislator Dradjat Wibowo.

Dradjat said several of the economics ministers always downplayed future economic threats in order to cover up their incompetency and to please the public.

"When the rupiah was plunging uncontrollably, Minister of Finance Jusuf Anwar simply said 'don't worry, be happy' despite the fact that President Susilo took the problem seriously. This is a sign that Jusuf did not have a good understanding of the problem."

Economist Faisal Basri insisted that the government had to introduce impressive policies to improve the economy, such as by reforming the tax and customs regime, and eliminating the high- cost economy in order to regain business confidence.

"I actually feel sorry for President Susilo as he is bearing the brunt of the curses from the public as a result of the incompetency of his economics ministers. Susilo should realize that it is time to change the economics team," said Faisal.