Prabowo Wary of Indonesia`s Unicorn and Money Running Overseas

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - An interesting moment happened during the second presidential debate yesterday when incumbent candidate Jokowi asked Prabowo Subianto upon his infrastructure strategy for Indonesia’s unicorn - a term to describe a private startup company valued at over USD1 billion.

A slightly puzzled Prabowo asked again in return to confirm the term used by the incumbent.

“May I ask this Unicorn you refer to? Is it those online-online things?” asked Prabowo.

Despite the initial bewilderment expressed by Prabowo, he continued to explain his strategy to develop that specific business by offering to reduce the regulations, considering startups are currently in its development peak.

 “They are developing rapidly right now,” said Prabowo.

Following that answer, Jokowi responded by mentioning four of Indonesia’s unicorn businesses among Asia’s seven unicorns that consists of Go-Jek, Traveloka, Tokopedia, and Bukalapak. Jokowi continued by presenting his programs that would further boost Indonesia’s unicorn startup tally.

Prabowo responded again by agreeing with the government’s policies for unicorns, however, he warned of the country’s economic disparity by expressing his worries of potentially running the earnings of these Indonesian unicorns overseas.

“One day a small group of people less than one percent of the population will control our wealth. So with these unicorns, comes great technology, I’m concerned that this will further cause our added value and earnings [to be kept at] locations overseas,” said Prabowo Subianto who also mentioned the amount of Indonesia’s significant financial wealth currently kept overseas.

“This is what I’m worried about. Go ahead and laugh but this involves Indonesia’s wealth that doesn’t stay in Indonesia,” he said.

TEMPO.CO