Commentary: All the ‘low-hanging fruit’ programs in the first 100 days

Vincent Lingga , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Thu, 01/28/2010 9:37 AM Headlines

Had President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) anticipated the thundering political noise he would encounter at the outset of his second term, he might not have trapped himself in the euphoria of the first 100-day theatre.

But then there was no reason at all why, after being re-elected with almost 61 percent of the votes, he should have such foreboding. What an unfortunate development it turned out.

was really a rough ride during the first 100 days of the SBY administration, with most of the public trust he gained in the July 2009 election wasted on adversary relations between his administration and the parliament.

The first 45 days saw the government besieged and the national mass media dominated by the tussle between the police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
Then over the last six weeks, the public’s attention and the national mass media have been consumed by the parliamentary investigation of the controversial bailout of Bank Century in 2008, which has sapped the energy of the finance minister, the acting central bank governor, deputy governors and directors.

We didn’t actually expect that much from the Yudhoyono government during its first 100 days insofar as real programs of action that would have had a significant impact on the economy.
Because of the some 50 economic programs proposed during that “political spring”, they were all low-hanging fruits that did not require painstaking effort.

Quite a number of the programs consisted simply of making blueprints, plans of action or guidelines for various operations, such as mass rapid transport systems in urban areas, sea transport, inter-modal transportation and ports, food estate and self-sufficiency in corn, soybean sugar and beef.

These could be what Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa dubbed “quick win” programs.

Also included in this category was the promulgation or amendments of regulations on the pricing of natural gas for domestic market obligation, tax incentives for renewable energy and domestic market obligation for coal producers, which were certainly achieved.

There was the ceremonial announcement of plans to develop clusters of agriculture-based (mostly palm oil) industries in North Sumatra, Riau and E. Kalimantan and natural gas-based industries in E. Java and E. Kalimantan.

These actions obviously do not immediately produce any significant impact on the economy, let alone make things easier for doing business, as from the outset they had been designed to be implementation over the next five years.

, the catalog of regulations, operational directives, blueprints and plans produced over the past 100 days would not do much in the way of convincing the public the government is really serious about implementing reforms.
But we should still give credit where it is due.

The government also implemented several measures to remove bottlenecks (“de-bottlenecking” as Hatta described it) in business/investment licensing, port-handling, infrastructure funds and customs service operations for 24 hours seven days a week at the four largest ports: Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok, Surabaya’s Tanjung Perak, S. Sulawesi’s Makassar and North Sumatra Belawan.

The ministers of trade, home affairs, justice and human rights, transmigration and manpower, and the chief of the Investment Coordinating Board issued a joint decree designed to expedite all licensing procedures to start up businesses that at present take about 60 days to complete, to only 17, by introducing a one-stop administration center for all kinds of licenses and abolishing 70 kinds of redundant permits.

Yet more significant was the launch of electronic one-stop processing for business/investment licenses starting on Batam Island, near Singapore, in mid-January. This bold measure will make the process much more expedient and transparent.

The 24/7 customs service operations and the application of a national single-window system in the processing of all documents needed to clear goods out of the port area are the first big steps in improving the efficiency of logistical systems that also involves many other government agencies and service companies.

Capping the achievements in the first 100 days was the government establishment Tuesday of PT Indonesia Infrastructure Finance with an equity capital of US$450 million in a joint venture with the Asian Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation (a World Bank subsidiary) and the German development bank DEG as shareholders. This new facility could be a financing breakthrough in accelerating the implementation of long delayed infrastructure projects in the country.

So all in all, taking into account its strong political mandate, we give the government performance in its first 100 days a score of 4 on a scale from 0 to 10.