TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Sofyan Djalil, the head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) said that government policies would reflect the progress of a country. According to Sofyan, Indonesia has done well in adopting policies, such as those at the macroeconomic level.

However, Sofyan viewed that there should be room for improvements.

“In my old office, I found some policies were not research-based,” Sofyan said at Bappenas office in Jakarta on Wednesday, August 19.

Sofyan referred to an example of beef and chicken scarcity. According to Sofyan, the issue with beef and chicken scarcity was just the tip of the iceberg. The former coordinating Economic Ministry said that he did not hesitate to reevaluate policies that had been issued.

In addition, Sofyan said that Indonesia’s commodity sector would need more policies related to the manufacturing industry.

Sofyan suggested that the government should conduct a research and collect solid data before issuing a policy. Sofyan hopes that the international conference called Best Development Practices and Polices to be held by Bappenas on Friday, August 21, 2015 would become a momentum to improve the quality of the development planning.

James Giling, the head of Australia-Indonesia Cooperating Program at Bappenas, said that people tend to think that solutions to the problems in Indonesia are in other countries. However, James said that Indonesia must start to look for solutions to its own problems.

Mesdin Kornelis Simarmata, the director of Industry, Science and Technology Affairs at Bappenas, explained that the conference on Best Development Practices and Policies was aimed at facilitating domestic researchers and policymakers. Five main topics to be considered by Bappenas, Mesdin added, would be food resilience, energy resilience, maritime affairs, industry and tourism.

“The conference results would serve as inputs for relevant institutions or ministries,” Mesdin said.

ADITYA BUDIMAN