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Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita has estimated that export growth in 2018 would reach only 7.5 percent, far below the targeted 11 percent, although the official result has not been released.
Last year’s 11 percent target was already lower than the 16 percent export growth achieved in 2017.
Enggartiasto has attributed the lower export growth to global economic turbulence that led to a decline in local market demand.
(Read more: The Jakarta Post)
The government has asked major exporters to park their export revenue in Indonesia and convert it into rupiah to help bolster the currency’s exchange rate.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo made the call during his meeting with 40 top Indonesian exporters on Thursday at Bogor Palace in West Java. Also present at the meeting were Indonesia’s richest man, Robert Budi Hartono, Adaro Energy president director Garibaldi “Boy” Thohir and GarudaFood Group chairman Sudhamek Agoeng Waspodo Soenjoto.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the meeting was held to gather input from the businessmen on managing the prolonged global uncertainty. The government also asked how to channel export revenue to Indonesia.
“We conveyed to them what we, the government, could do to [persuade] the businessmen to bring their export revenue [back] to Indonesia,” she said after the meeting.
Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani said only 85 percent of export revenue returned to Indonesia, while the remaining 15 percent was parked overseas.
(Read more: The Jakarta Post)