REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Senior Economist of the World Bank Hans Anand Beck expressed appreciation for Indonesia's tax amnesty policy, which he said would help drive the country's economic growth. "I appreciate the policy. I think in the future the Indonesian government would need to evaluate a number of regulations to increase the state income to improve investment climate," Hans said here on Wednesday.

In the first period from July to Sept 30 of the tax amnesty program, the government earned Rp97.2 trillion in redemption or more than 50 percent of the target of Rp165 trillion in three periods. The second period is from Oct. 1 to December 31 and the third or the last period is from January 1 to March 31 next year.

Hans said Indonesia has to be able to maximize the state income from the tax amnesty program either through investment in the manufacturing or infrastructure sector although consumption sector is also important.

Weak exports amid global economic slowdown, has forced developing nations including Indonesia to rely on the consumption as economic growth driver, he said. "Strengthening domestic consumption has become an important point to sustain growth," he said.

The World Bank predicted that the Indonesian economy would grow 5.3 percent in 2017 and 5.5 percent in 2018 to follow the trend of regional economy.

The East Asia and Pacific economies are predicted to reach stability in the next three years, he added.

Indonesia's economy is predicted to grow steadily from a growth of 4.8 percent in 2015 to 5.5 percent in 2018, World Bank's chief economist for East Asia and Pacific Sudhir Shetty had said. The prediction, however, would depend much on public investment and improvement in investment climate and increase in revenues, Shetty said.

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