Jakarta, July 10 2018 - The Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas) in collaboration with the Government of Australia through Knowledge Sector Initiative are holding the Indonesia Development Forum 2018 on 10-11 July 2018 in Jakarta. Entitled “Pathways to Tackle Regional Disparities Across the Archipelago” this year’s theme is in harmony with one of President Joko Widodo’s NawaCita (the nine national priorities), which is ‘developing Indonesia from its periphery’, by strengthening social, economic, and human resources aspects across the country, including the least developed and islands areas.
“In this year’s IDF, various elements from government, researchers, business actors, general public, youths, and other development stakeholders can interact with each other in open dialogues on inter-regional gap challenges and together find evidence-based best solutions to address those challenges, as well as map new and innovative approaches,” the Minister of PPN/Head of Bappenas, BambangBrodjonegoro, explained, during press release on Tuesday, July 10, 2018.
The Government of Indonesia is fully aware of the impacts of inter-regional gaps on the country’s growth. A clear evidence of this is the differences in growth in Java compared to that of other islands, between provinces in Western and Eastern parts of the country, as well as between urban and rural areas.
Other than between regions, gaps still prevail between urban and rural areas. Up to date, unequal quality in basic services persist in both areas. This is despite the fact that basic services are crucial for the public economic productivity and social prosperity. This paradox is estimated to grow bigger in the future, leading to even more massive inter-regional gap.
Should this gap continue, it will weaken these less-developed regions, as a consequence of exploitation of their resources by, and migration of their productive age population to the more developed ones. Indonesia is currently facing inter-regional and intra-regional gaps.
IDF 2018 serves to accommodate all ideas and innovations to address such gaps. Numerous ideas raised in the event are expected to support government’s efforts to develop evidence-based policy solutions to address the inter-regional gap problems.
Development recommendations produced by IDF 2018 will be developed into a more thorough planning that will be directly implemented by policy makers. These recommendations will constitute an important feedback for developing the National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) of 2020-2024.
“We believe that Indonesia Development Forum 2018 can inspire the emergence of new initiatives to help addressing the inter-regional gaps across Indonesia.” Australia is committed to keep supporting those efforts by continuing its collaboration with our partners in Indonesia and at international level,” explained the Ambassador of Australia for Indonesia, Gary Quinlan.
IDF 2018 features 250 nationally and internationally recognized speakers, and over 95 papers and presentations - selected from 580 participants from across the globe- regarding various topics that cover centers of growth, narrowing gaps in peripheral areas, improving basic services, innovation in local government, digital economic growth, improvement of connectivity, and optimization of effective and innovative development funding.
Participants can directly exchange ideas with experts and practitioners during many interactive sessions provided. The “Inspire” session stresses on best practices from Indonesia and other countries in order to identify the best steps to address the inter-regional gaps. The “Imagine” session encourages participants to imagine a more inclusive, progressive, and sustainable future for Indonesia, while “Ideas and Innovations Marketplace” will feature new solutions to address various development challenges as “Innovate” approach. The “Initiate” session will discuss about planning and strategies for addressing inter-regional gaps in the country.**
