Poverty Difficult to be Reduced
Jum'at, 29 Agustus 2008 | 11:28 WIB

TEMPO Interaktif, Jakarta: The government is continuously having a difficult time in reducing poverty and unemployment. A researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Latif Adam mentioned the economy focusing on non-trade sectors as the cause. He explained non-trade sectors like electricity, gas, potable water, construction, trade, hotel, restaurant, transportation, finance, and services, contribute 73.4 percent to economic growth.

Trade sectors like agriculture, mining, and the refining industry only contribute 26.6 percent to economic growth. “While non-trade sectors provide less job opportunity than trade sectors,” said Latif in Jakarta yesterday.

He suggested the government to be more serious in developing trade sectors as they targeted lower poverty and unemployment in 2009 by 12-14 percent from 15.4 percent at present.

Latif said that his research shows unemployment in 2009 will increase by nine percent or higher than what the government targeted by 7-8 percent. Currently, unemployment is still at 8.5 percent.

“The jobs absorbed from industry have declined,” he said. More jobs are absorbed at the informal sector which is unhealthy for economic growth.

Gunanto E S