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