President Prabowo Subianto delivers his speech during the national consolidation congress of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) on Jan 16, 2025, at The Ritz-Carlton Jakarta, Mega Kuningan in Setiabudi, South Jakarta. - Photo: Jakarta Post/ANN
JAKARTA: President Prabowo Subianto has called for an “Indonesia incorporated” concept, saying he wants to give the country’s private sector a bigger role in contributing to the national economy, including taking a lead in infrastructure development.
The President made the call on Thursday (Jan 16) in his speech at the national consolidation congress of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) in Jakarta.
He also dismissed concerns that the government might relegate infrastructure to the backseat in favour of driving his priority agenda of achieving food and energy self-sufficiency, including his flagship free nutritious meal programme.
“I want to give a bigger role to the private sector. Some people have said that I plan to halt infrastructure projects. That is not true. I will not stop them,” Prabowo told participants at the Kadin congress.
The private sector was more efficient, innovative and experienced, he reasoned, making them the right choice for managing infrastructure projects, and that private sector involvement was welcome in building toll roads, seaports and airports.
However, the President maintained that public services and other sectors related to the livelihoods of many people would remain the government’s domain.
These include dam revitalization and irrigation projects to bolster food production, as his administration announced at the outset, along with other projects that support Prabowo’s priority programmes.
“I have said many times that the government will handle the important matters [...] concerning the protection of the people, among other things. But what the private sector can do, the private sector [must] develop. The private sector must do it all,” he said.
Aside from the President, 28 cabinet ministers also attended the Kadin congress, including Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto, Coordinating Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono and Yusril Ihza Mahendra, the coordinating minister of law, human rights, immigration and correctional services.
In his speech, Prabowo also vowed to improve administrative efficiency to better manage the country’s wealth through a model that reflected how private entities are run, analogising that it was impossible for businesses with a net loss to survive.
“We all know that Indonesia is very rich. But we often mismanage this wealth and we often waste it,” he said.
“Businesspeople, you should be the ones who understand better. It is impossible for inefficient and reckless companies to survive. If expenses are greater than income, [that business] is heading toward bankruptcy,” he added.
The government has allocated a record budget of over Rp 159 trillion (US$9.69 billion) for its food security programme in 2025, a jump of more than 30 per cent compared to the 2024 budget, in a bid to fulfill Prabowo’s promise to achieve food self-sufficiency during the five years of his presidency.
This budget allocation is to cover spending to boost food production, including developing so-called food barns at the national, regional and village levels, intensifying rice production on 80,000 hectares of land and creating 150,000 ha of new rice fields.
Public Works Minister Dody Hanggodo said in November that funding for new infrastructure had been frozen under a directive from Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.
At the same time, Prabowo asked his aides to reduce spending on meetings and official trips to create more budgetary space to finance his priority programmes. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
