Investors Ask the New Cabinet to Prioritize These Two Things

TRIBUNBATAM.id - Investors asked the government economic team of Joko Widodo and Ma'ruf Amin to prioritize two things. The first thing is solving the unemployment problem.

The request was summarized in the Katadata Investor Confidence Index (KICI) survey conducted on 272 institutional investors.

When respondents were asked to choose priority issues that had to be resolved by the new cabinet economic team, 83 percent of investors considered unemployment to be a very pressing problem (priority). 

Meanwhile 15 percent answered neutral, while the rest considered unemployment not a priority.

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"Respondents assess the problem of unemployment is the most need to be prioritized to be addressed immediately," said the Expert Panel Katadata Insight Center, Damhuri Nasution through a press statement, Thursday (10/24/2019).

As for the past 4 years the unemployment rate has indeed declined significantly from 6.18 percent as of August 2015 to 5.26 percent as of August 2018.

Despite the decline, said Damhuri, if added to the percentage of the population who are underemployed, then the percentage will be quite large.

"The number of underemployed people is 6.62 percent. When combined, the percentage is quite large, almost 12 percent," he said. 

In addition, there are also some people who are forced to work in the informal sector due to limited employment in the formal sector.

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"That is why many people find it difficult to find work," Damhuri said.

The second problem that needs to be prioritized besides unemployment is the problem of the current account deficit amid relatively low economic growth.

As many as 79 percent of respondents rated the current account deficit as a priority issue for the economic team.

BPS data noted, Indonesia's trade balance in September had a deficit of 160 million US dollars. Meanwhile, throughout the year running from January to September 2019, the deficit was recorded at 1.95 billion US dollars.

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"This deficit, of course, will greatly affect economic growth," he said. 

On the other hand, labor law issues are considered the lowest priority for investors. As many as 53 percent of investors consider this issue a priority, while 34 percent answer neutral, the rest consider it a priority.