Coordinating Minister for Economy, Hatta Rajasa, said the middle level class in Indonesia has grown very rapidly. He hoped that the growth is evenly whether in rural or urban areas. The Government, therefore, has pushed the even distribution of growth across Indonesia.
“It will be dangerous if growth takes place in urban areas only,” said Hatta in the seminar entitled Business and Politics Disloyalty in UGM Graduate School on Friday evening (8/3).
Hatta explained that the middle level is a class that spends between 2-20 dollars per day. In 2003, there were 81 millions of middle-class people; in 2010 the figure increased to 131 millions.
“The increase is 50 millions,” Hatta added.
Hatta expected that investment growth would continue to increase along with the increasing consumptions. He regretted that some improvements that had been made to investment climate apparently did not go very well.
“So, one of the measures made is the MP3EI (Masterplan of Acceleration and Extension of Indonesian Economic Development), by which we’re optimistic that by year 2025 Indonesia would become the seventh strongest economy in the world,” he said.
Meanwhile, UGM economic observer, Dr. Sri Adiningsih, M.Sc, considered the growth of middle class in Indonesia could become a threat to the country if this is not dealt with well.
“We can see what happened in Africa, Asia or Latin America Latin,” said Adiningsih.
That is reasonable because until now there is disparity of expenditures among people, which is increasing along with the low quality of Indonesian people. Some areas that may increase Indonesian economy, according to Adiningsih, are the micro and informal sectors.
“I hope Indonesia would not become a country whose economic growth is stagnant as had been predicted by the ADB of 11 developing countries in Asia,” she said.