Soeharto meets Widjojo

Soeharto meets Widjojo

Businessmen are now asking whether or not the government will
issue a new economic policy following a rare meeting between
President Soeharto and his senior advisor Dr. Widjojo Nitisastro
recently.

We do not know the answer.

There does not seem to be anything wrong in the handling of
the management of the current macro economy despite the price
hikes befalling certain commodities, such as cement and paper.

However, as pointed out by economist Kwik Kian Gie, certain
issues deserve our attention. Inflation is one. The five percent
target set by the government this year seems to be difficult to
accomplish as April registered an inflation rate of 4.73 percent.

Non-oil exports are entering a turbulent period and may not be
extensive enough to produce a balanced state budget. The same
goes with employment opportunities. A huge 2.5 million addition
to the workforce will occur every year. Actually this figure
would be larger if we were to include the people who failed to
get jobs in the previous years.

We hope that our economy will improve after the deregulation
-- scheduled for this month -- but we will have to remain
vigilant to detect efforts running counter to those new policies.

-- Kompas, Jakarta