Indonesia, once an emerging manufacturing powerhouse, is facing an ‘early’ deindustrialisation according to Indonesian economist Ahmad Heri Firdaus.
Manufacturing made up 27.7 percent of economic activity in 2000 but as of the second quarter of 2020 it had fallen to 19.8 percent. This is just one of the many factors imperilling Indonesia’s shot at lifting its economy into the big league.
When the proportion of the population in their working years (15-65) is more than the dependent population (the old and the young), nations have an opportunity to turbo-charge their economies. Examples include increasing labour productivity, exploring economic potential to be a reality and increasing the nation's competitiveness, those economies leapt up a notch, as the workers skilled up, earned more and spent their spare money.
