President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo delivered his State of the Union address on the occasion of the 79th Anniversary of Indonesian Independence on Friday, August 16, 2024, claiming a success in developing Indonesia during his two terms in office.
“In the past 10 years, the government of Indonesia has been able to build a new foundation and civilization, with Indonesia-centered development, building from
the peripheries, building from villages, and building from the outermost areas,” the president said at the parliament complex in Jakarta.
He cited that the government has built 366,000 kilometers of village roads, 1.9 million meters of village bridges, 2,700 kilometers of new toll roads, 6,000 kilometers of national roads, 50 new ports and airports, 43 dams, and 1.1 million hectares of new irrigation canals.
“With these developments, we have successfully lowered logistic fares from 24 percent to 14 percent in 2023. We have been able to boost our competitive
edge from rank 44th to rank 27th in 2024. We are able to strengthen our unity due to more equal and balanced access,” he pointed out.
He said further that Indonesia’s resilience as a nation has been proven by its endurance in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, in facing the climate change, and in facing the escalating global geopolitics.
“Alhamdulillah [Thank God], we must be grateful that Indonesia has emerged as one of few countries that recorded a faster recovery, even continued to grow. Our economic growth has been consistent at above 5 percent amid many countries that do not post growth and even slow down, while regions in Eastern Indonesia such as Papua that has been able to grow at above 6 percent and North Maluku at above 20 percent” he said.
The president added that inflation has also remained in check at around 2-3 percent, as many countries has been experiencing an extraordinarily high inflation rate, some have even recorded more than 200 percent inflation rate.
Indonesia, he noted, could reduce extreme poverty rate from previously 6.1 percent to 0.8 percent in 2024 and it could lower stunting rate from previously at 37.2 percent into 21.5 percent in 2023. Indonesia also could also lower unemployment rate from previously at 5.7 percent to 4.8 percent in 2024.
Measures to protect underprivileged people have also brought broad benefits for the people.
“A budget of Rp361 trillion (US$ 23 billion) for the Health Indonesia Card in the past 10 years has been used for health services for more than 92 million participants of the National Health Insurance (JKN) program per year, starting from early age children to senior citizens all over Indonesia,” Jokowi said.
“A budget of Rp113 trillion (US$7.18 billion) for the Smart Indonesia Card in the past 10 years has been used to help finance the education of more than 20 million students per year, covering students from elementary school to senior high school/vocational school across Indonesia,” he added.
In addition, a budget of Rp225 trillion (US$14.3 billion) for the Family Hope Program in the past 10 years has been used to boost the economy of 10 million underprivileged families per year. A budget of Rp60.3 trillion (US$3.8 billion) for the Pre-Employment Card Program in the past 5 years has been used to upskill 18.8 million workers across Indonesia.
“This is the development that we are all aiming for; the development that reaches all levels of society; the development that brings an impact to the wide
community; the development that creates opportunities to grow together,” he concluded.
