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Friday 27 Nov 2015 - 13:14 Makkah mean time-15-2-1437
(Image from Antaranews)
Jakarta, (IINA) - The Indonesian finance minister said on Thursday that the government's focus next year will be on developing the tourism industry as it looks to steer economic growth away from reliance on exports suffering a commodity price slump, Jakarta Globe reported.
“Bali and Nusa Tenggara (Indonesian islands) have proven that they were not affected by falling commodity prices because those are tourism-driven areas”, Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said at a business forum in Jakarta.
“That means we’ve found a way to tackle slower economic growth by focusing more on one sector, namely the tourism sector”, he added.
The combined economies of Bali and East and West Nusa Tenggara provinces was 11.75 percent in the third quarter of 2015, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), compared to 4.73 percent nationally.
Indonesia has taken a massive hit from a slump in global coal prices. The country is one of the biggest exporters of the fossil fuel, whose price has dropped by 50 percent over the last four years.
Bank Indonesia Governor Agus Martowardojo said at Thursday’s forum that commodity prices were expected to drop by a further 5 to 9 percent in 2016.
President Joko Widodo, who attended a later program at the forum, said he expected tourist arrivals to double in four years. “We had nine million tourists in 2014 and Malaysia had 24 million tourists, yet we have 10 times as many tourist destinations as Malaysia”, he said.
“I have set a target for the minister of tourism to boost tourist arrivals to 20 million in four years”, he added.
The government has embarked on a series of programs to boost the numbers, including revamping its tourism campaigns, waiving visas for visitors from 45 countries, and improving border services. Foreign tourist arrivals in September were up nearly 10 percent from a year earlier.
“I see the marketing campaigns and the promotions are on the right track. It’s time to improve local products and the local hospitality industry to boost our income from the sector from the current $11 billion to $20 billion in four years”, said the Indonesian president.
AG/IINA
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