Jakarta — President Prabowo Subianto’s administration has reaffirmed its commitment to creating millions of new jobs and strengthening investment in rural areas as a concrete effort to improve public welfare and economic equality. Several strategic cross-sectoral programs are currently being prepared to reduce the social gap between urban and rural areas, while simultaneously encouraging the growth of the formal workforce.
Febrio Nathan Kacaribu, Director General of Economic and Fiscal Strategy at the Ministry of Finance, explained that the government is focusing its economic policies on creating more formal jobs in the coming year.
“The most direct (policy to improve welfare) is job creation. So, if we look at the released employment data, the trend is rather flat. But we hope we’ll create more jobs next year,” he said.
Febrio explained that in one year the government was able to create around 3.7 million new jobs, but only around 40 percent of them were formal.
“In total, we create around 3.6 to 3.7 million new jobs a year. It’s important to note that only 40% of these are formal. We want more formal jobs,” he said.
He emphasized that increasing the formal workforce is a major challenge for the government, aimed at strengthening national competitiveness and achieving income equality.
“This is a major challenge, especially starting next year. We must create more jobs so that people can earn more and earn more income. This will improve equality,” he explained.
Previously, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya revealed that President Prabowo’s various flagship programs are ready to accelerate the creation of new jobs.
“The presence of 80,000 Red and White Village Cooperatives will absorb a workforce of at least 400,000 people, assuming each cooperative will employ at least 5 new workers,” said Teddy.
In addition, the replanting program for 870,000 hectares of smallholder plantations is projected to create 1.6 million jobs over the next two years. Other programs, such as the Red and White Fishermen’s Village and the Pantura Fishpond Revitalization Program, are expected to employ over 300,000 additional workers.**