Toward an Advanced Indonesia through Excellent Human Resources

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

Sri Mulyani Indrawati

There was great expectation for the progress of this nation when I met face to face with Raeni, a doctoral S-3 student from the University of Birmingham who aspires to become a professional researcher.

The daughter of a becak (pedicab) driver, Raeni completed her undergraduate (S-1) study at Semarang State University on a government scholarship, Bidik Misi. Raeni graduated cum laude, and the father proudly drove her on his becak to the graduation. Armed with her enthusiasm and achievement, Raeni has completed her masters (S-2) degree and now continues her education to doctoral degree in the UK with a government scholarship from the Institute of Education Fund Management (LPDP).

Raeni\'s story is an example of a true story about the success of Indonesian people in pursuing social levels to achieve their goals, and the state is present to support the talents and potential of the people to be able to actualize them. The state budget (APBN) is a government instrument to develop superior Indonesian people as a foundation for becoming a developed country.

The state’s role in improving the quality of human resources

The 2020 state budget will focus on improving the quality of human resources to expand Indonesia\'s competitiveness on the world stage. This state budget will also be a starting point for President Joko Widodo to realize the vision of 100 years of independent Indonesia, namely to become a sovereign, advanced, just and prosperous nation.

To achieve the vision, Indonesia\'s economy must grow at a high rate. The three main factors of economic growth are capital, quality human resources, and technology. Over the last five years, the government has massively built a variety of basic infrastructure, both physical and social infrastructure. With the infrastructure and improved connectivity, the mobility of people, goods and services will be greater and at lower cost. With better logistics, productivity and economic competitiveness can increase.

Research from the World Bank also says that the quality of human resources is a driver of sustainable economic growth and a determinant of the success of efforts to overcome poverty. Investment spent on developing the quality of human resources, both for education and health, has become increasingly important in line with increasing global competition in the Industry 4.0 era.

Building human resources requires policies and programs with visions and strategies that are adaptive to changing times. The synergy and support of all stakeholders, including the government, society and the business world, are very important because the dimensions of human development are very complex.

Building superior human resources also includes unlimited protection, especially for people who have not been prosperous, from birth to reaching old age. All people must be guaranteed their basic needs, including education and health, so that they are able to channel their potential to help build the nation and its civilization. Development that focuses on humans will create a strong middle class that makes the nation\'s resilience and economic competitiveness better.

Therefore, the state must be present especially for the poor and vulnerable people in ensuring overall human development. At birth, candidates of the nation’s successors from poor families are given social protection through the Family Hope Program (PKH). In 2020, funds of Rp 29.1 trillion will be spent on the PKH program. Then, there will be food social assistance in the form of basic food cards, amounting to Rp 28.1 trillion, to be provided to 15.6 million beneficiary families.

The total allocation of social protection funds budgeted by the government is Rp 385.3 trillion, which will be used to accelerate efforts to overcome poverty and improve equal distribution of welfare, through various aspects of the APBN, such as social assistance, several types of subsidies and village funds.

In terms of health, in order to obtain adequate health services, there is the Healthy Indonesia Card, where the government bears the National Health Insurance contribution for 96.8 million poor people by allocating funds for the assistance recipients (PBI) in the APBN. This assistance aims to improve the quality of life of underprivileged families, as well as provide health services and social welfare guarantees.

To ensure the availability of health services, the government has also anticipated the need for a health insurance budget, which is followed by improvements in the national health insurance (JKN) system and management in an effort to ensure the sustainability of the JKN program. The total health budget in 2020 is Rp 132.2 trillion with a focus on accelerating the reduction of stunting, strengthening promotive, preventive, and continuing the national health insurance programs.

To educate the nation\'s children, when entering school age, through the Indonesia Smart Cards (KIP) and School Operational Assistance, children from poor families can continue their education at the elementary, junior high and high school levels. The Smart Indonesia Program will be targeted at 20.1 million students and School Operational Assistance targeting 55.8 million students and 271,000 schools. Scholarship assistance can also be obtained when continuing school in college though the KIP Kuliah (Lecture) scholarship program. In 2020, the government will target 818,000 scholarship recipients to continue their education at a higher level (including the continuation of Bidik Misi).

By competing in a healthy manner, they can also continue to a higher level of education, both undergraduate and graduate, both at home and abroad, through the LPDP scholarship. Opportunities will be opened for 5,000 students to compete in LPDP scholarships in 2020. The total education budget that will be issued by the government in 2020 is Rp 505.8 trillion.

”World Class University”

To improve and expand the quality of tertiary institutions, a University Endowment Fund will be established to assist tertiary institutions to enter the category of World Class University. Even though currently only three universities in Indonesia are in the world\'s top 500, namely UI, ITB, and UGM, with the endowment more universities are expected to achieve world class status and contribute to the development of more competitive Indonesian human capital.

Realizing that research is a fundamental requirement needed to increase superior and competitive national productivity, the government will allocate endowment funds for research. These funds are allocated to increase the quantity and quality of research, especially research in sectors that have a large potential multiplier effect.

Through this endowment fund, the government is confident that it can create a conducive research ecosystem so that the Indonesian people can advance through the creation of various new innovation centers.

The role of business and the private sector is very important in the development of Indonesian human resources. In solving the problem of vocational skills and research and development, the government provides tax deduction (super deduction) incentives for taxpayers who provide vocational and research activities. Thus, the private sector will compete to participate in solving the workforce training while accommodating it. And so are the research activities needed in product development and national industrial competitiveness.

The government has also prepared Pre-Work Cards, namely cards given to job seekers or workers to get vocational training services and/or work competency certification. Budgeted funds for the Pre-Work Cards amount to Rp 10 trillion for 2 million cardholders. Implementation will rely more on market mechanisms and digital platforms to bring together the skills demanded and needed by industry and society with prospective workers.

Human resources development is the basic capital for Indonesia in welcoming the optimism of advanced Indonesia. The budget being allocated is one important requirement for the success of Indonesia\'s human development. However, it will not guarantee success if it is not equipped with strategies, policies and programs implemented with commitment and competence and high integrity by all stakeholders.

The government will continue the mandate of the nation\'s founders to make the state present in providing complete protection in guaranteeing the lives of the people of Indonesia. The APBN is a tool to achieve this goal. Therefore, every rupiah must be right on target and provide benefits to the people, and no less important is that no rupiah should be misused. Indonesia must move forward, no one must betray it.

Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Finance Minister of the Republic of Indonesia.