TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Finance Deputy Minister Mardiasmo said that Indonesia's economic growth and those of other countries today are far worse than those in the 90s.
Mardiasmo explained that Indonesia's economic growth in the 90s was mainly supported by the agriculture sector that made up 50 percent of the total GDP. However, over the years, the sector's contribution started to decrease during the global crisis in 1998.
"The agriculture sector's role decreased to 23 percent in 1982 and finally to 13.5 percent in 2016," Mardiasmo said in Jakarta on Monday, March 27, 2017.
Mardiasmo added that although the agriculture sector's role in Indonesia's economic system continued to slow down, labors working in this sector reached 32 percent in 2016.
According to Mardiasmo, the agriculture sector plays a strategic role in Indonesia's economy, particularly to support the food resiliency program. Therefore, Mardiasmo revealed that the government is striving to improve the sector's contribution to the national economic growth, by providing subsidies for fertilizers, food, and seeds.
"Infrastructure developments are crafted by the government to support agriculture distributions and cut logistics costs in a bid to lower prices of agriculture products," Mardiasmo said.
DESTRIANITA