INDONESIA’S ECONOMY

INDONESIA: TOWARDS A ONE TRILLION DOLLAR ECONOMY

Cyrillus Harinowo Hadiwerdoyo

The Jakarta Post, May 9, 2011

Last year Indonesia celebrated a new milestone for its economy. The Indonesian GDP per capita breached US$3,000 in 2010, a threshold that for a long time had been the target of the Chinese government.
In China, its Communist Party’s annual congress in 2002 decided on a target of $3,000 GDP per capita in 2020. That target was reaffirmed by President Hu Jintao in a speech delivered at the Boao Economic Forum in Hainan in 2004. Such a level was said to produce accelerated economic growth for 11 years in South Korea.

Apparently, the Chinese economy was able to achieve that level, not in 2020, but much earlier in 2008. And, the sector that benefited the most was the automotive industry. If Chinese domestic car sales reached one million in 2000, in 2009 sales had increased to 13.6 million, surpassing the United States to become the largest car market in the world.

Having reached a per capita GDP of $3,000, the Indonesian economy has shown more signs of becoming an extremely dynamic economy. Domestic car sales have once again increased by around 30 percent to 225,000 units in the first quarter of 2011.

Looking at historic patterns, if there are no supply disruptions from the critical components produced in the earthquake-affected area in Japan, the rest of the year will see a further rise in sales. Thus, over 900,000 cars may be sold domestically in 2011, a level just a few inches closer to the new milestone of one million cars.

(...) [artículo aquí]