Very high appreciation should be given to President Jokowi’s courage and also to his strong commitment and accuracy in the use of programs and strategies regarding downstream efforts undertaken by Indonesia so that it continues to maintain national economic growth even in the midst of unstable economic conditions.
The President of the Republic of Indonesia (RI), Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has chaired a limited meeting (ratas) together with a number of ministers and heads of other relevant institutions in order to discuss efforts to increase and downstream food products.
Regarding what was discussed in the limited meeting, Head of the National Food Agency, Arief Prasetyo said that Heads of State in a limited meeting which was held on Monday 10 July 2023 discussed El Nino, namely the phenomenon of warming Sea Surface Temperature (SML). above normal conditions, which occurs in the central Pacific Ocean.
Not only discussing El Nino, but President Jokowi is also preparing efforts to increase production, especially production in the food-agriculture sector in Indonesia, which will then be carried out for downstream production.
In an effort to carry out this downstreaming, even the Head of State really showed his strong commitment to real work, namely directly assigning the Public Company Logistics Affairs Agency (Perum Bulog) to regulate the absorption of rice, corn and soybean production.
Then, there are other products produced by the country and will also be downstreamed as stated in Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 66 of 2021, namely these products will be managed by a State-Owned Enterprise (BUMN) in the food sector, namely ID Food.
Not to be left behind in the discussion at the limited meeting chaired by President Joko Widodo, it was also discussed how the low-cost funding scheme prepared by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia (Kemenkeu RI) because there was indeed a guarantee from the Minister of Finance and would be given to the Association of Owned Banks Country (Himbara). Furthermore, the guarantee is given to BUMN in the food sector, the first is to Bulog, then the second is to ID Food.
It is not half-hearted, the seriousness of what was carried out by the Government of Indonesia under President Jokowi’s leadership can also be seen from how the loan prepared by the Ministry of Finance, namely in the amount of 3 (three) trillion Rupiah.
The government itself will also continue to be vigilant over the possibility of an increase in inflation and try to keep the inflation rate only in the range of 3.5% (percent) and prevent it from increasing.
So far, several records show how successful President Jokowi is in preventing the inflation rate from continuing to increase. Last month the inflation rate remained very stable, namely at 3.5 percent and even continued to try to lower it and not increase it, so that inflation remained below the country’s economic growth rate, especially in the food sector.
Then, with the breakthrough made by the Government of Indonesia regarding these downstream efforts, it even succeeded in bringing in support from 2 (two) neighboring countries, namely Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Regarding how this support is, the Coordinating Minister (Menko) for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Marves), Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said that Australia really supports Indonesia and also sees that the downstream program launched by President Jokowi is very capable of overcoming domestic downstream, which which strategy is a very appropriate way even the country continues to progress.
Precisely because of that, Australia seems surprised by how the way the Head of State can act in the midst of downstreaming in Indonesia, but in fact the country is still progressing as it is today. Of course, this cannot be separated from the important role and kind of leadership that President Jokowi has in carrying out downstream and digitalization.
When there are programs and strategies with this very precise approach, the Australian Prime Minister (PM), Anthony Albanese, gives great appreciation because he considers that the country has succeeded in having a good work scheme, namely all work can be holistically integrated.
In addition, it is not only Australia that praises how downstream efforts are made from Indonesia, but also Papua New Guinea. They admit that they are impressed with the current downstream program being implemented in the country.
Of course, in a particular program, strategy or policy that a country wants to implement, it is a necessity that all of these have the role and contribution of the Head of State. In this case, the courage that has been shown by President Jokowi in the downstream program has been able to get a lot of appreciation from several neighboring countries.