Antara-Aug 15
President Joko Widodo stated the government is focusing on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and various lowest-income groups in the country as part of efforts to achieve common welfare and prosperity.
“The government not only pays attention to large scale businesses but also focuses on MSMEs and 40 percent of the lowest-income people,” he said at the annual session of the People`s Consultative Assembly (MPR) at the parliament building here on Thursday.
To improve the welfare of the lowest-income people, the government is implementing an agrarian reform and social forestry program and is increasing ultra micro, micro and small businesses` access to capital, he said.
In addition, the government has also lowered the final tax rate for MSMEs to 0.5 percent to encourage the development of MSMEs, he said.
To provide social insurance, the government has been striving to stabilize the prices of basic necessities, distribute aid to 10 million beneficiaries of the Family Hope Program and reform the food assistance system into a non-cash assistance program.
The move is aimed at ensuring that the program will better reach the targeted beneficiaries. The number of targeted beneficiaries will also be increased to 15.6 million households in 2019, he said.
“With the concrete work, we will continue to bring down the Gini ratio as the indicator of income disparities. We have managed to lower the Gini ratio to 0.389 from 0.406,” he said.
The head of state went on to say that in the past four years the government had overhauled the business climate with the ultimate goal of making the economy more productive and competitive while at the same time improving the nation`s self-reliance.
