Govt Sets Gini Ratio Target at 0.36%

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government is targeting to lower the national Gini ratio from 0.42 percent to 0.36 percent within the next five years, to crunch the rate of unequal income distribution in Indonesia.

Andrinof Chaniago, head of the National Development Planning Agency, said that, this whole time, macro target achievements have had little if no effect on people's welfare due to the programs' lack of focus.

The House of Representatives (DPR) is also urging the government to set human development targets—covering aspects of poverty, employment, Gini ratio—when discussing the State Budget. That way, said DPR's Budget Committee chairman Fadel Muhammad, legislatives will know what impacts the state budget has in raising social welfare. Discussing the targets will also "bind the government's hands and feet" in using the state budget, he said.

Enny Sri Hartati, an economist from the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef), said it is crucial that the government and the legislators agreed on human development targets to ensure economic equality.

"Economic growth targets end up being a meaningless, without-quality instrument," she said, mentioning 2012, she said, growth reached six percent but the level of economic inequality and poverty rates did not improve.

Enny said economic growth has been dominated by the trade and services sectors. As a result, economic resources can only be accessed by capital owners while the working group is mostly left unemployed. 

TRI ARTINING PUTRI