Jokowi Urges Local Governments to Boost Use of Local Products

Jakarta, The Gulf Observer: President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) called on city and district governments to increase the utilization of local products in their procurement processes, noting that the current use stands at a mere 41 percent.

“Regarding budget absorption and particularly the use of local products, it is still 41 percent. The use of local products is still 41 percent. However, 41 percent is still low, meaning that the rest are imported products,” Jokowi stated during the Inauguration of the Opening of the 2024 National Working Meeting XVI of the National Association of District Governments of Indonesia (APKASI) at the Jakarta Convention Center.

The president emphasized the importance of careful budget utilization by district and city governments, highlighting the difficulty in collecting state revenues from various sources such as taxes, non-tax state revenues (PNBP), royalties, and dividends.

Jokowi expressed disappointment that funds from state revenues transferred to regions are being used to procure imported products, which ultimately benefit other countries. He urged local governments to prioritize local products for goods and services procurement.

“I need to remind you this. Buy our own products. I remind you, collecting the funds is very hard so we should use local products 100 percent for the procurement of goods and services,” he remarked.

Jokowi also highlighted the challenging circumstances of the past five years, citing the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, wars affecting oil and food prices, and environmental issues such as heatwaves, El Niño, and La Niña.

“These caused many things, such as health crisis, economic crisis, food crisis, financial crisis, and humanitarian (crisis). Nevertheless, we must be grateful that our country is able to survive the obstacles and challenges,” he noted.