The country desperately needs foreign cash and know-how if it is to balance the budget, create jobs for a fast-growing workforce and move toward the president’s lofty ambitions to reach developed-nation status. To get there, Jokowi, (pic) as he is known, will have to rein in his protectionist tendencies.
INDONESIAN President Joko Widodo isn’t a great orator but the former factory owner has a knack for charming listeners with cute analogies. In his state of the union address this month, he likened the pandemic-hit economy to a computer that had crashed and needed a “reboot.” If only it were that simple.
The country is facing its first recession since the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 and the highest Covid-19 death toll in South-East Asia. The country desperately needs foreign cash and know-how if it is to balance the budget, create jobs for a fast-growing workforce and move toward the president’s lofty ambitions to reach developed-nation status. To get there, Jokowi, as he is known, will have to rein in his protectionist tendencies.
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