President Jokowi recently unveiled a three-pronged economic strategy to speed up the country’s economic growth. Green economy is a key focus of the strategy, together with the digitalization of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and developments related to downstream industries.
The SME digitalization initiative aims to push 60 million MSMEs to adopt e-commerce and other digital platforms to offer their goods and services. The number currently stands at 12 million only.
Meanwhile, for the green economy, the government plans to construct a green industrial park producing green products with only renewable energy. Importantly, Indonesia is a country rich in green energy sources, namely hydro, solar, stream, wind, biomass, marine and geothermal energy. The renewable energy potential of water is reported to be 75,000 MW, while the utilization rate is only about 10%, with potential room for growth.
Analysts have highlighted that some challenges remain in turning the economic strategy to realization. For instance, the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) remarked that green economics should be hand-in-hand with the country’s commitments to cut down emissions while improving waste management and developing more sustainable solutions extraction of natural resources.
(Source: The Jakarta Post)
