Jakarta, Sept 23 (Antara) - The government will prioritize its budget allocation in 2016 for programs and development projects, which will have multiple and significant effects on alleviating poverty and reducing the unemployment rate.
"One of the indicators of the quality of economic growth is its ability to provide jobs for workers. We set a target to provide 300 thousand to 350 thousand jobs for each percent of the economic growth," National Development Planning Minister/Head of National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) Sofyan Djalil stated after a working meeting with Commission XI on financial affairs of the House of Representatives (DPR) on Tuesday night.
The government and the DPR on Tuesday night discussed a revision in the assumptions made in the draft 2016 state budget, which was proposed by the government through its financial notes in August.
On Tuesday night, the government and the DPR agreed to maintain several people's welfare targets as set in the draft 2016 state budget, but the macro economic growth assumption was revised down from 5.5 percent to 5.3 percent.
Minister Djalil noted that the targets agreed in the meeting to improve the people's welfare were higher than the concept proposed by the Bappenas. Therefore, the government will take anticipatory steps to narrow possible gaps between the targets and their realization, one of which is to improve the allocation of the budget.
"I have no objection to the targets. We will improve the quality of expenditures and the program budget allocations. This is the goal of our economic growth target," he said in the wee hours of Wednesday.
He remarked that the government's budget allocations in 2016 would mainly be focused on programs and projects, which will have significant multiple economic effects in alleviating poverty and reducing the unemployment rate.
The government and Commission XI of the House agreed on Tuesday night to reduce the previous poverty rate target in 2016 from 10.96 percent to 9-10 percent, unemployment rate from 5.6 percent to 5.2-5.5 percent, the Gini index from 0.413 to 0.39 percent, and the human development index at 70.1 percent.
During the meeting, Djalil also explained that the economic slowdown in 2015 led to a rise in unemployment and poverty rates. Hence, this can create problems for the government to achieve the prosperity targets set for 2016.
He also took the opportunity to shed light on Bappenas' concept on prosperity targets, which were more moderate compared to those agreed during the meeting with Commission XI.
Based on Bappenas' moderate concept, the poverty rate for 2016 is set in the range of 9.5-10.5 percent, while the unemployment rate was fixed in the range of 5.3-5.6 percent.
However, Djalil affirmed that the government was ready with it if Commission XI, as the people's representative, sought no downward revision in the prosperity targets.
"We have made preparations to improve the quality of the budget. We are committed to improve the government-private sector cooperation programs, so that the programs could be implemented as soon as possible," the minister emphasized.
Earlier, Andreas Edy Susetyo, a Commission XI member, appealed to not revise down the prosperity target. He said that with the inflation rate target set at 4.7 percent year-on-year, the government should be convinced that it was able to increase the people's consumption and purchasing power.
Therefore, there is no reason for the government to fail in reducing the poverty and unemployment rates in 2016, Susetyo, who is a legislator of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), noted.
However, Muhammad Misbakhun, another lawmaker of the Golkar faction, expressed doubts, saying that the government could fail to realize its Nawacita (priority development) programs if the prosperity targets were revised down.
Regarding the economic growth rate set at 5.5 percent in the draft 2016 state budget, the government and Commission XI agreed to revised it down to 5.3 percent.
"There were differences in opinions during the deliberations. However, when we spoke about Indonesia, the nation and motherland, then we all shared the same opinion and reached a conclusion," Commission XI Chairman Fadel Muhammad stated.
He noted that lawmakers of Commission XI finally agreed to the 5.3 percent growth target revision proposed by the government. It revised the previous target set at 5.5 percent in the financial notes that the government had proposed recently.
The revised target is viewed to be more realistic in the face of the global economic conditions next year.
During the session, the two sides also agreed to maintain the inflation rate and the three-month treasury bills (SPN-3) as set in the previous assumptions at 4.7 percent and 5.5 percent respectively. The rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar was revised from Rp13.4 thousand per US dollar as set in the financial notes to Rp13.9 thousand per US dollar.
Before the agreement was reached, four factions of the Commission proposed a revised growth target of 5.3 percent, three factions mentioned 5.2 percent, and three others proposed a range of 5.1-5.3 percent.
For the rupiah exchange rate, five factions proposed Rp13.9 thousand per US dollar, two factions assumed Rp14 thousand per US dollar, one faction opted for Rp13.8 thousand per US dollar, and two others mentioned a range of Rp13.7 thousand-Rp14 thousand.
With regard to the inflation rate, seven factions assumed 4.7 percent, while the remaining three factions suggested a range of 4.5 percent, give or take one percent. For the SPN-3, eight factions proposed a rate of 5.5 percent, one suggested a range of 5.5-6 percent, and another one placed it at under 5 percent.
For the development index rates, they agreed to place the employment rate at 5.2-5.5 percent, poverty rate at 9-10 percent, Gini index at 0.39 percent, and the human development index at 70.1 percent.
The working meeting with Commission XI of the DPR was attended by Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro, Bank Indonesia (BI/the central bank) Governor Agus Martowardojo, National Development Planning Minister/Head of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) Sofyan Djalil, and Head of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Suryamin.
The macro assumptions will be taken to the house budgetary body for further deliberation.***3***(A014/INE/o001)EDITED BY INE(T.A014/A/BESSR/O. Tamindael) 23-09-2015 12:02:5 |
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar