The Indonesian government has issued the ninth economic policy package which aims to deregulate the logistics industry to combat the country’s high logistics costs in a bid to improve the competitiveness of domestic industries.
The ninth policy package also aims to accelerate the development of the power sector to meet consumers’ needs, and covers the importation of animal products to fulfill the consumption requirements of the population, according to Chief Economic Minister Darmin Nasution.
In seeking to deregulate the logistics sector, the government is bent on lowering Indonesia’s transport costs, said to be equivalent to around 25% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) and to be among the highest in the ASEAN region.
According to Indonesia-Investments, there are four parts to the ninth stimulus package. The first focuses on the move to a single billing scheme by integrating billing and payments for port services conducted by state-owned enterprises into one electronic system.
The second part is to integrate the National Single Window system with the “inaportnet” system which monitors the flow of goods in harbors.
Transportation Ministry Regulation No.3/2014, which refers to the use of foreign currencies for transportation payments, is going to be revised under the package. By making changes to this policy, the Indonesian government aims to make the use of the Indonesian rupiah mandatory for payments related to transportation activities.
Finally, Communications and Information Ministry Regulation No.9/2015 will be removed to equalize the prices of private commercial postal services and state postal services in Indonesia. This regulation is a major advantage to Pos Indonesia, the state-owned provider of postal services in the country, but limits competitiveness and efficiency in the postal services sector.
According to Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, the government hopes the ninth stimulus policy package will help boost economic activities and make the local investment climate more attractive through an improved and more efficient transportation system.
