By: O. Safitrie *)
Former Indonesian Finance Minister, Dr. Muhamad Chatib Basri, said on Wednesday (18/3) that in the next ten to fifteen years the challenge for Indonesian leader will come from the urban area.
“I see a dramatic changes in Indonesian society these years. When I was a kid, we did not need to make any reservation to eat at fancy restaurant, but now all those kind of places are always full”, he illustrated how the lifestyle in Indonesia is changing.
The consequence of this changes is that there will be more people coming to the big cities to satisfy their demand for such lifestyle. Hence, Jakarta and other big cities in the country will be more crowded. This will create many problems in the future if the government fail to anticipate.
“If you want to be Indonesian president in ten to fifteen years later, the challenge will be clean water, carpark, traffic jams, and housing”, he told the audiences in S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
However, this change also creates more opportunities for business player. The number of middle-income Indonesians is growing. The surge of the demand on city lifestyle will need to be satisfied. Thus, doing business in lifestyle, health, and education in Indonesia will be attractive. He further said that Singapore might have realized this. By building Marina Bay Sands, the country has successfully attracted many Indonesians to come. Many Indonesians also come to enjoy Singapore health facilities and education.
Dr Basri, who is now serving as Chairman of Indonesia Infrastructure Finance, gave a talk on “Navigating Economy at the End of Easy Money: the case of Indonesia” in RSIS on Wednesday. In his talk he shared his experience in handling Indonesian economy during the “tapering tantrum” in which Indonesia that was before classified as fragile fives together with India, Turkey, Brazil, and South Africa then became fantastic fives due to its success to manage the situation.
*) The Author Is Singapore Contributor
