JAKARTA, Oct 23, 2009 (AFP) Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Friday his new economic team was aiming to achieve seven percent growth by the end of his final term in office.
On the first full day at the helm of his new cabinet, which was sworn in Thursday after July presidential polls, Yudhoyono promised to return Southeast Asia's biggest economy to pre-crisis growth levels by 2014. He also promised "growth that is inclusive and fair" and reduces poverty in the mainly Muslim archipelago of 234 million people. The government has predicted growth of 4.0-4.5 percent this year, third only to China and India in the G20 club of rich and major developing countries. The economy grew 6.1 percent in 2008. The local stock market has soared almost 80 percent in 2009, but about half the population continues to live on less than two dollars a day, according to the Asian Development Bank. Addressing the inaugural session of the new cabinet, Yudhoyono said seven percent growth could have been reached this year but for the impact of the global downturn on the domestic economy. Yudhoyono's new coordinating minister for the economy, Hatta Rajasa, earlier said that while the government was aiming for seven percent growth by 2014, a longer-term eight percent target was "achievable". His comments reflect the view among many investors that Indonesia's economy is poised to emerge from years of underperformance. The liberal former general Yudhoyono, who was inaugurated Tuesday having won a landslide election victory in July, has compiled a rainbow coalition of six parties controlling 423 out of 560 seats in parliament. He has come under fire for handing most seats to party-political figures rather than competent experts more likely to improve governance and fight corruption in the world's third biggest democracy. The choice of former transport minister Rajasa as economy minister raised some eyebrows, but the all-important posts of finance and trade stayed with incumbents seen as reliable technocrats. Former International Monetary Fund senior executive Sri Mulyani Indrawati keeps the finance portfolio, while Mari Pangestu stays in charge of the trade ministry, where she has been a steady advocate of open markets. -- Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this story --
