JAKARTA: In his final State of the Nation address on Friday, marking the 79th anniversary of Indonesia’s independence, President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, reflected on his decade-long presidency and the five-year tenure of Vice President Prof KH Ma’ruf Amin.
Jokowi reviewed achievements during his tenure, including the construction of 366,000 kilometres of village roads, 1.9 million metres of village bridges, 2,700 kilometres of new toll roads, 50 new ports and airports, 43 dams, and 1.1 million hectares of new irrigation canals.
“With these developments, we’ve successfully lowered logistic fares from 24 per cent to 14 per cent in 2023. We’ve been able to boost our competitive edge from rank 44 to rank 27 in 2024,” he said at the annual session of the People’s Consultative Assembly and the joint session of the House of Representatives in the parliament.
Jokowi reported economic progress, with inflation kept at between two and three per cent, extreme poverty reduced from 6.1 per cent to 0.8 per cent, and the stunting rate decreased from 37.2 per cent to 21.5 per cent.
He praised social welfare programmes for helping millions with health insurance and education, and highlighted progress in domestic raw material processing, resource management, and green energy.
He also noted legislative reforms, including a new Criminal Code and laws addressing sexual violence.
“We must be grateful that after 79 years of independence, we finally have a new Criminal Code as an endeavour to modernise Indonesian legal system, as well as Law on Job Creation that revises 80 laws and 1,200 articles as an endeavor to deregulate overlapping regulations,” he said.
Jokowi also acknowledged the challenges and shortcomings of his 10 years administration, offering apologies for any unmet expectations.
“Ten years is not a long period to solve all the problems in our nation. I may have committed mistakes in some of the measures I’ve taken and it is very possible that I’ve committed a lot of mistakes,” he said.
He expressed confidence in the country’s future under President-elect Prabowo Subianto, who will take office on Oct 20, 2024 as well as wished for continued success and guidance for Indonesia as it moves forward to achieve the 2045 Golden Indonesia vision.
