The Indonesian government plans to trim down by half 12,471 regulations that concern economic development in order to harmonize rules and simplify the national bureaucracy, according to Minister of National Development Planning Sofyan Djalil.
Over 10,000 regulations have been issued over the past 10 years without comprehensive planning and proper coordination among institutions, causing overlaps and repetitions, Sofyan added.
Moreover, several regulations contradict each other as they concern the same sectors but with different mechanisms, said Sofyan, concurrently chairman of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas).
“Many regulations have resulted in high cost to the economy,” he said while launching the National Strategy of Regulation Reform recently.
The ministry will request each technical ministry and institution to review regulations issued during the past 10 years, reports Antara News. The results will be presented to President Joko Widodo, and Bappenas will later lead a long-term effort to reduce those regulations, Sofyan added.
“The deregulation of 154 regulations announced in the economic policy packages made public by the coordinating economic ministry is only a small part of the over 10 thousand regulations,” he said.
Within a year, at least 50% of those problematic regulations will be simplified in a bid to fast-track national development and provide non-fiscal incentives to businesses and investors, he added.
At the regional level, Bappenas has found out that the local administrations had issued 28,752 regulations as well over the past 10 years.
Bappenas also plans to simplify those regulations in coordination with local administrations.
By streamlining economic regulations, Sofyan said, the cost of conducting business in Indonesia and the time needed to obtain business permits can both be reduced.
Sofyan’s task is meant to turn into reality the deregulation and de-bureaucratization plan that was publicly declared by Widodo early last month in a campaign to boost the country’s industrial competitiveness.
According to the Worldwide Governance Indicators, in terms of regulatory quality, Indonesia’s percentile rank stood at 46%, or below the Philippines at 52%, Thailand 58%, Malaysia 72%, Brunei Darussalam 83%, and Singapore at 100%, said the news report.
Photo: Gunawan Kartapranata
