Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Wednesday that the government has set an economic growth target of over 6 percent in 2018 on the back of strong growth in the investment sector.
"Such a target is not easy to comply with. The important thing is that investment must grow above 10 percent," the president said in a cabinet meeting held in the presidential palace here.
More vibrant consumption and trade were also expected to contribute to the nation's efforts in attaining the targeted growth, he added.
The 2018 growth target was significantly higher than the 5.2 and 5.1 targeted for 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Southeast Asia's largest economy saw its investment rose to 453.5 trillion rupiah (about 34.72 billion U.S. dollars) in the first nine months this year, or 13.4 percent higher than the same period last year, according to Indonesia's investment coordination agency of BKPM.
BKPM Chairman Thomas Lembong previously has expressed his optimism to see a total investment of 594.8 trillion rupiah (about 45.5 billion U.S. dollars) be achieved at the end of this year.
President Widodo's administration has issued 13 economic reform packages aimed at attracting more investors into the country by simplifying procedures to run business and providing facilities to operate in the country, among others.
The World Bank (WB) has recently upgraded Indonesia's Ease of Doing Business (EODB) rating up to 91 from the previous 106 due to the government's economic reform initiatives.
Latest comments