TEMPO Interactive, SURABAYA:President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is convinced that Indonesia will become a developed country and become one o f the world’s economic power within 15 years time. The President conveyed his dream when he gave lecture titled “Technology, Economy, and the Future of Indonesia” to students at the November 10th Institute of Technology Surabaya (ITS), to commemorate ITS’ 50th anniversary, yesterday.
“We want Indonesia to be a developed country by the 21st century. Although the century will not end until 90 more years, we don’t have wait that long,” the President said. The advances it will achieve will not only be in the field of the economy, but also in innovations, law and democracy.
According to the President, Indonesia’s defense and diplomacy powers by the end of the 21st century will also become more improved. In the early stages of the century, Indonesia will become an emerging economy like Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
Yudhoyono is convinced because Indonesia is implementing an open economy, just, and environmentally-friendly system. The President hopes that this goal will be supported by an economy that is strong, balanced, and beneficial to all groups, especially those of the lower income group.
With its 247 million population, Indonesia can no longer rely on exports. By empowering the love for local products, the domestic industry will advance.
In Jakarta, Joyce Juo Yu Lin, a political and economic observer from Tamkang University in Taiwan, is of the opinion that Indonesia’s democratic system and economy has improved significantly. Indonesia’s democracy is even better than those of Thailand and the Philippines. The economic growth, she said, relates much to the democratic system implemented.
Arif Budimanta, a member of the House of Representatives’s (DPR) Finance and Banking Commission said that Indonesia cannot grow as fast as Taiwan because its economic policies do not fully protect the small-scale business sector. The bureaucracy is inefficient, the politics are unstable, and the bad infrastructure remains a problem.
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