Indonesian Scientist Call for Inclusive Economy

Jakarta (Antara) - An Indonesian scientist calls for adoption of inclusive economy to narrow the economic gap in the country. "We hopes that the contestants in the forthcoming presidential election would adopt inclusive economy," Maxensius Tri Sambodo, a researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) told reporters in a news conference here on Wednesday. Maxensius said inclusive economy is one focusing on elimination of poverty. He said inclusive economy is developed on three main pillars -- maximum use of economic opportunity, providing social safety networks and guaranteeing equal access to economic opportunity. "The three pillars need to be seriously addressed in the future's economic development," he said. He said support for inclusive economic system would result in the spread of growth to various sectors not only in certain sectors. He noted that in the past several years the service sector has remained to be in the doldrums and the manufacturing and agricultural sectors grew moderately with only the mining sector recording a fairly strong growth. "This is not good news. The economic gap widened as growth has been recorded only in capital intensive sector not in labor intensive sector," he said. He also cited a number of factors that put a brake on the country's economic growth including commodity price fall, tightening of the country's national liquidity, trade deficit, China's economic slowdown, weak demand for Indonesian exports, falling value of rupiah against the US dollar and the general elections in 2014. The LIPI's Economic Research Center urged the government to work harder to create basis for a more inclusive economic growth. So far the country's economic growth has been driven mainly by natural resources extraction and exploitations, he said. "Such method is not far different from the system used in the colonial time. Allowing the system to go would hamper inclusive development. In the mean time the threat of middle income trap is looming," he said. (*)