Sesmendukbangga: The quality of human resources without stunting must become a national priority
Jakarta — The Secretary of the Ministry of Population and Family Development (Sesmendukbangga), the Chief Secretary of the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN), Budi Setiyono, said that the quality of human resources (SDM) without stunting must become a national priority in order to raise the quality of the country’s human resources. He said this in response to President Prabowo Subianto’s address to the House of Representatives on Wednesday (20 May) regarding the Macro Economic Framework and Main Policy of Fiscal Policy (KEM-PPKF) for the RAPBN 2027.
“To achieve the Indonesia Maju 2045 vision, we need to support the President to move well beyond speeches and growth-target numbers. First, the quality of human resources must be safeguarded from stunting; education and skills reform must become the national primary agenda,” he said when contacted in Jakarta on Thursday.
“Budi added that MBG distribution must be sharpened to reach the main target group of pregnant and breastfeeding women at risk of stunting. Indonesia also needs to shift focus from merely improving school participation rates to enhancing human resource quality.”
“‘Mathematics education, science, engineering (rekayasa), artificial intelligence (AI), and industrial vocations must be priorities,’ he said.”
“Second, bureaucratic reform must be undertaken seriously and on meritocratic grounds. Digitalisation of government procurement, integration of national fiscal data, performance-based evaluation of civil servants (ASN), and deregulation of licensing must proceed aggressively because without an efficient bureaucracy, industrialisation will only lead to budget leakage and new rents.”
“Third, downstreaming must be upgraded. Indonesia is not enough to merely build smelters (mining processing plants). Indonesia must enter higher value chains such as battery industries, electric vehicles, petrochemicals, advanced materials, and even technology component industries,” he said.
“Fourth, investment in research and development must be raised drastically as advanced countries typically allocate more than 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to research.” “Indonesia still needs to catch up to match that figure. Without domestic innovation and technology, Indonesia will continue to depend on foreign technology,” said Budi.
“Fifth, continued the Sesmendukbangga, is infrastructure development that must be directed at reducing national logistics costs because an archipelagic country like Indonesia requires efficient connectivity so that economic productivity improves more evenly,” he concluded.