REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PALEMBANG -- Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto expressed concern over the fact that Indonesia has become a market for products from other countries, such as motorcycles and cars.
"Indonesia is the fourth-largest country in the world and has become the market for the world's motorcycle and car products. Indonesia has no domestic manufacturers of motorcycles and cars," Prabowo stated during a meeting with a noted local ulema and community leader Kemas Abdullah Alim Ali here on Thursday.
Prabowo noted that Indonesia adds about 1.2 million new cars and 10 million motorcycles every year, but none of them were domestically manufactured.
Indonesia is largely a supplier of low-wage workers and housemaids to the world.
"Indonesia must rise, become strong and prosperous. It must be able to produce cars, motorcycles, and airplanes," he added.
Prabowo Subianto had earlier promised to execute the Trans Sumatra highway construction plan stretching 2.7 thousand kilometers from Aceh in the western tip of Sumatra to Lampung province in the eastern part of the island.
"President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's program to construct the Trans Sumatra highway will be carried forward and accomplished," Prabowo emphasized.
He added that he will also resume railway development programs and expand productive plantations to increase the production of commodities, such as rice.
"This includes developing a bioenergy program," he noted, adding that all this will be carried out to continue the development schemes launched during Yudhoyono's term.
Currently, there are two presidential and vice presidential candidate pairs, Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla and the Prabowo-Hatta Rajasa, who will contest in the upcoming July 9 presidential election.
The Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla duo is supported by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), the National Democrat Party (NasDem), the National Awakening Party (PKB), and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) with 207 seats or 36.96 percent of the House of Representatives' (DPR's) 560 seats.
The Prabowo-Hatta duo is supported by the Greater Indonesia Movement (Gerindra), the Golkar Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Prosperous Justice Party, the United Development Party (PPP), and the Crescent and Star Party (PBB) with 292 seats or 52.14 percent in the parliament.
Prabowo Subianto is a retired military general and the chairman of Gerindra Party, while his running mate, Hatta Rajasa, is a former coordinating minister for economic affairs and the chairman of PAN.
Joko Widodo is Jakarta's governor and a cadre of PDIP, and his running mate, Jusuf Kalla, is a former vice president and a senior politician of the Golkar Party.
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