If I must choose what policy of President SBY considered the best, it will be economic corridor policy. The government is about to develop 6 (six) economic corridors all across Indonesia. Each corridor will focus on specific industry and the investors invited will be given business incentives. Through this belated initiative, we are upbeat on Indonesia's future.
There are no prosperous countries in world gain their affluence by chance. Everything has to be planned and orderly executed. Besides the main idea to elevate people's income is to allocate as much as possible workers to higher value-added jobs. Economic corridors consisting of industrial clusters will serve this very idea. Economic corridors will add value to raw material and give jobs to much more workers. The corridor also links the goods movement and transfer (supply chain) in a very efficient way. Given abundant raw materials, workers and vast area, this strategy does fit Indonesia.
At least 2 (two) Indonesia's corridors are on the way. First, industrial clusters located in Riau province are expected on stream in 2014. These clusters are going to support Crude Palm Oil (CPO) downstream industries. Second, Merauke sugar estate located in Papua province has also been on negotiating and reaching final deal with its main investor. This cluster wants to emulate Brazil's massive agricultural industry.
The agriculture-based industries are not the only path of Indonesia. A lot of choices are provided at hand. For instance, Indonesia's well-known handicrafts must be connected with Indonesia's tourism area. Smelters and metal industry must be located near energy resource mining such as coal or gas. Knowledge-based industry must be incorporated with universities area to absorb talented students.
The downside of this economic corridor policy is that President SBY never speaks about this pivotal policy vehemently. I never hear him speaking that this program is very important. It seems that this idea is not from him, but from his subordinates. Economic corridors are complicated strategy and they need a lot of funds and gumption. In short it needs more than Coordinating Economic Minister leadership.
Compared to Multimedia Super Corridor of Malaysia in which the then Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad himself travelled around the world offering the corridor to the business leaders, the President SBY's effort to promote these corridors is not adequate.
I encourage President SBY heeds very much about the corridors development and take serious action to ensure its successfulness. And it will be his best legacy during his two-term presidency. However this is also a risky project. Someone must take responsibility if it fails. Unfortunately, President SBY is not a risk taker.
Reference:
- http://bataviase.co.id/detailberita-10502648.html
- http://bataviase.co.id/node/419499
- http://farmlandgrab.org/10991
- http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/10/04/merauke-food-estate-weighing-agricultural-balance.html
- http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/10/16/palm-oil-clusters-start-operation-2014.html
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