Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Minister of National Development Planning (Bappenas) Sofyan Djalil has expressed his optimism that the economic disparities, or Gini Ratio, in 2015-2016 will decrease as a result of development policy reforms and changes in the government budget.
"There have been improvements this year. Next year, our target is for Gini index to fall till 0.39, and we plan to make maximum efforts to achieve it and expect that it would be realized," Sofyan said after opening a seminar, titled "Indonesia towards the implementation of the SDGs," here on Tuesday.
He contended that reducing economic disparities in a developing country like Indonesia is not an easy task. However, since preparations began to formulate the national budget for 2015, the government has been trying to change a partial development policy to a multi-sectoral integrated policy.
For example, the development plans now have three reference goals, such as human resources development, sectoral development and inter-regional development.
"We need time for a right policy correction," he added.
In addition, on the budget policy side, government has reformed fiscal instruments so that allocated funds guided towards any sector lead to an increase in job opportunities.
One example is "Dana Desa" (Village Funds) program, amounting to Rp20.7 trillion in 2015 and Rp47 trillion in 2016.
Moreover, to empower people in rural areas, the government has set a budget limit for Public Infrastructure Funds. Such funds can be used for any facilities and infrastructure aimed at improving access to work and enhancing productivity.
The purpose is to reduce the disparity level by accelerating an increase in income for low-income citizens. It would be a big challenge for the government, Sofyan noted.
The disparity level among Indonesians, or the Gini Ratio, has become wider in the last 15 years. In 2015, the Gini Ratio for Indonesia was recorded at 0.413, significantly more than the figure in early 2000 when it was around 0.30.
The government has projected that the Gini Ratio could be decreased to 0.40 in 2015 and 0.39 in 2016. (WDY)
