Fall in Oil Prices Lends Momentum to Industrial Development: KEIN

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The National Industry and Economic Committee (KEIN) believes that the decline in the oil prices will lend a momentum for Indonesia to carry out its industrialization program.

"We discussed moments ago that now is the right time for Indonesia to carry out its industrialization program," said KEIN chairman Soetrisno Bachir at the State Palace on Wednesday.

He said Indonesia may no longer remain a country limited to exporting raw materials but should rather export finished goods after processing the raw material at home and adding value.

"There is a decline in the oil production cost. Yet, we have another little constraint, and that is the banking interest rate which remains relatively high, regardless of the fact that inflation has already dropped to a lower level," the KEIN chairman noted.

He said that President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) would have preferred the lending rate of banks to go down speedily this year as this would have made Indonesian products more competitive, especially in the current ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) era.

"Since our members are professionals and entrepreneurs, we hope the inputs provided by the KEIN would turn out to be implementable recommendations and not merely remain theoretical concepts on paper," Soetrisno said.

He expressed the optimism that Indonesia will become an industrial country with high economic growth. "The time is now ripe to boost economic growth. During the tenure of the current government, the industry must grow at a higher rate," the KEIN chairman said.

Explaining the difference between the National Economic Committee (KEN) and the KEIN, Soetrisno said KEN will handle macro economic development while the KEIN will look at the development of the industry.

"We will direct our country towards becoming a progressive industrial country, maybe like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. We will move in that direction," he said.

Referring to the impact of terror attacks such as what happened in Jakarta last week, Soetrisno said it did not impact the economy, nor did it harm the businesses investment plans.

"No one has delayed or put on hold his or her investment plan. After all, the government has provided guarantees on such issues. Rather, there are many people (who visited the bombing sites) to take pictures there. That is an indication that people feel that everything is secure," he said.

ANTARA