Indonesian economy is predicted to grow over 5.1-5.2 percent in 2017. This is due to the increase in commodity prices following the world oil price hike. The government is expected to take the momentum for repatriation of tax amnesty funding and maintain against deficit of the state budget. Even so, the rupiah will remain pressured due to the Feds rate increase.
“The rupiah will remain pressured due to the Feds increased rate by three times in 2017. But the tax amnesty repatriation that will come in will slightly help the rupiah,” said macro economy expert from UGM, Dr. Tony Prasetiantono, in a Talkshow entitled Indonesia Outlook 2017 in Poerbatjaraka Hall, Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM, on Friday (16/12).
Tony explained the Indonesian economy next year would be relieved with the increased world oil price after Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed to reduce oil production to one million barrels per day. “The increase in world oil price will increase the price of coal; if the price of coal and other commodities increase, there will be demands and our economic growth increases, too,” he said.
The programme of President Joko Widodo, Tony said, prioritises on developing the infrastructure. Tony expected Finance Minister Sri Mulyani to maintain the state financial balance not to be absorped by this infrastructure development.
The talkshow to celebrate the UGM’s 67 anniversary is presenting other speakers, such as disaster management expert from UGM, Prof. Ir. Dwikorita Karnawati, M.Sc., Ph.D., sociology expert, Dr. Arie Sudjito, and culturalism researcher from CRCS UGM, Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir.
On recent challenges to diversity, Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir assessed that the government needs to put forth sterner laws enactment.“Despite the commitment to sustain the diversity in unity spirit, but the authorities have to prioritise on resolving minor issues more. Don’t ignore these minor issues and let them grow bigger,” he said.
According to Zainal, incitement to hatred through social media has to be firmly sanctioned by the police officers. “The social media influence is huge. I think presently this has not been made a priority by the law enforcers,” he said.
Arie Sudjito further emphasised that it was important for the government to involve political parties to enhance maturity among the society in democracy as well as instilling ideology and nationalism spirit. “Political parties ought to improve themselves; it’s not wise to ask people to be wiser whilst they’re not enjoying the fruit of the development. But, the maturing process is not just the government’s duty, we have already realised that diversity is a big problem among our society,” he said.
On disasters, geologist, Prof. Dwikorita Karnawati, predicted that in 2017 disasters would still threaten areas vulnerable to disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, and eruptions. But these could be minimised if the government would firmly monitor and implement regulations of established disaster vulnerable zones.
“Each regional government has their own disaster zone maps; we need to stick to these regulations. There’s no other choices, what is needed here is the monitoring system and early warning systems,” said the expert who is also Rector of UGM.