Poverty Reduction: One of the Ambitions in Indonesia's RPJMN Plan
The government of Indonesia aims to reduce the country's poverty rate to between 6.5 and 8.0 percent by 2019. The government, through its Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas), is currently busy finalizing the targets of the National Medium-Term Development Plan 2015-2019 (RPJMN 2015-2019). This RPJMN is the third phase of implementation of the National Long-Term Development Plan 2005-2025 (RPJPN 2005-2025) which forms the basis for ministries and government agencies when formulating their policies.
The long-term RPJPN is hierarchically the highest government plan and spans the period from 2005 to 2025. This masterplan is for reasons of planning and efficiency divided in four stages, each with a lifespan of five years. These four stages are the four separate medium-term RPJMNs and run parallel with the taking office of a new government. Through these medium-term plans the various governments are able to set their own priorities in the process of national economic development (on the condition that these priorities/policies are in line with the long-term RPJPN). As such, the next president and government of Indonesia (general elections will be held in mid-2014) will add their own vision and priorities to the (implementation of the) RPJMN 2015- 2019. In the meantime it is the task of the incumbent government to define the technocratic framework of the RPJMN.
The minister of National Development Planning (Bappenas), Armida S. Alisyahbana, said that the targets set in the medium-term RPJMN 2015-2019 will not differ much from its predecessor. The minister mentioned that the government intends to reduce the poverty rate to between 6.5 and 8.0 percent of the population. According to the latest data from Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik), Indonesia's poverty rate currently stands at 11.96 percent, equivalent to 29.12 million Indonesians. This rate is higher than the initial poverty target for 2013 as high inflation since the increase in subsidized fuel prices in late-June 2013 has pushed a significant portion of Indonesians back into poverty. Inflation in 2013 is expected to accelerate to 9.0 percent (yoy) by the end of the year.
In order to support the poor segments of Indonesian society, the government intends to focus on development of the agriculture sector where approximately 40 percent of Indonesia's labour force is employed. Many of these workers are poor or near-poor.
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