From the Jakarta Globe
President Joko Widodo has ordered his aides to eliminate half of existing government regulations in a move to encourage business activities and revamp the country’s economic growth.
“Next year I want at least half of our regulations gone,” Joko said in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
The government currently follows some 42,000 regulations – presidential decrees, government regulations and ministerial decrees – that dictate a range of issues, from how business should source their raw materials to what language they should place on their product labels.
“Those complicated regulations shackle us, make us inflexible and prevent us from making progress,” Joko said. “Ministers shouldn’t concentrate on procedures, but on results.”
He added that he would evaluate his ministries’ performance based on their ability to achieve their goals.
Indonesia is in dire need of private investment to rejuvenate its economy from the slowest growth pace since 2009 amid a decline in global commodity demand.
Still, slow reform in its bureaucracy keeps the country’s competitiveness behind neighbors like Thailand and Vietnam, barring it from becoming a manufacturing hub in the region.
