President-elect, Prabowo Subianto, has expressed his confidence that his “Free Nutritious Meal Program” will be one of the important pillars in realizing Indonesia’s economic growth target of 8 percent.
He emphasized that by providing free nutritious food, economic circulation will be created in the villages as money will flow to remote areas and drive local economic sectors that have been marginalized.
“Providing nutritious food for our children means that there is money circulating in every village. There is a guaranteed market, there is a captive market, and all production in the village or sub-district will be absorbed,” Prabowo said in defense of his vision statement at the closing of the 2024 BNI Investor Summit in Jakarta on Wednesday, October 9, 2024.
According to Prabowo, this is an effort to answer the challenges often faced by farmers, such as harvest surpluses that are not absorbed or the inability to sell products due to inadequate distribution facilities.
Prabowo gave an example of a condition that once occurred, where the surplus of eggs in one district could not be distributed, and another was the best mango harvest in West Java could not be sold due to lack of distribution vehicles. With this free nutritious meal program, farmers can now be calm as they know that their products such as eggs, vegetables, and fruits will have a definite market.
Separately, Economist and member of the Expert Council of the Prabowo-Gibran National Campaign Team, Drajad Wibowo, also expressed a similar view in a dialogue at the Le Meridien Hotel in Jakarta on Wednesday. He said, this free nutritious meal program will have a direct impact on the lower middle class.
“When the supply chain runs well and all parties from catering to SMEs are involved, the economic turnover at the lower level will occur significantly. The multiplier effect is expected to be able to overcome the economic gap that still exists in the private sector,” Drajad said.
Drajad added that this strategy is a solution to reduce the economic gap that often occurs in various regions. “We will boost government investment spending, and regulate the expenditures,” he said.
To support this program, the Ministry of Finance has allocated a budget of Rp71 trillion (US$4.5 billion) in 2025. This program is focused on pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, toddlers, and students at all levels of education. In addition to improving the nutritional quality of the younger generation, this budget is also expected to increase Indonesia’s economic growth by 0.10 percent in the same year.
Furthermore, the National Nutrition Agency is projected to manage a free nutritious food budget of up to a total of Rp400 trillion in the next few years. Every day, around Rp800 billion will be allocated to meet the nutritional needs of the community, especially for the most vulnerable groups.
However, Drajad emphasized that this amount could increase along with the increase in state revenue. “This program is very dependent on the performance of state revenue, which is the main key to achieving the 8 percent growth target in 2025. If state revenue increases significantly, the budget for this program can be further increased through a revision of the State Budget,” he concluded.
