REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Former Minister of National Development Planning (Bappenas), Andrinof Chaniago, revealed the Indonesia economy was in a fragile condition. He did not agree that the national economic fundamentals were strong as it was often expressed by the Minister of Finance, Bambang PS Brodjonegoro.
The instability of the national economy was because the government gives domestic natural resources to be managed by foreign investors. The government had designed a number of project in natural resources/energy and mineral in foreign management by giving tax holiday.
“We became a vulnerable nation which wasted our natural resources. We were too kind to foreigners. We helped them strengthen their competitiveness, but we weakened our own competitiveness. We looked for economic growth by selling our resources, not by creating new innovation,” he said, in Jakarta, Monday (31/8).
Indeed, according to the data of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), foreign investment in Indonesia, in the first half of 2015, became the highest in ASEAN. It was amounted to 13.66 billion US dollars or 31 percent of all investment of ASEAN.
The other countries which have higher number of investment were Vietnam and Malaysia. Vietnam got 7.53 billion US dollars or 17 percent, while Malaysia got 7.01 billion US dollars or 16 percent.