Jakarta. The Indonesian government is prioritizing long-term economic growth through energy security, digitalization, and natural resource industrialization, according to Deputy Minister of Finance Thomas Djiwandono.

"These three themes serve as the foundation for long-term growth, and that’s when we need to look at the growth engines," he said in an official statement on Tuesday 

The Finance Ministry is exploring various sectors as potential sources of new growth, including infrastructure, tourism, and digitalization. Thomas added that President Prabowo will expand the economic focus to other sectors to maintain Indonesia's attractiveness to global investors.

Regarding fiscal targets, the government aims to keep the budget deficit below 3 percent, with next year's deficit target set at 2.53 percent. Currently, efforts are focused on creating job opportunities for youth and developing new growth engines to support the middle class.

"We must find ways to support the middle class. I believe all of this is related to discovering new growth engines," he said.

The Finance Ministry projects economic growth to reach 5.1 percent by the end of 2024, slightly below the 5.2 percent target outlined in the 2024 state budget, but higher than the 5.05 percent recorded in 2023.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported that Indonesia's economic growth for the second quarter of 2024 reached 5.05 percent. Meanwhile, the World Bank has upgraded its forecast for Indonesia's gross domestic product (GDP) growth, projecting an average of 5.1 percent per year from 2024 to 2026. This revision marks an increase from the previous projection of 4.9 percent for both 2024 and 2025.

President Prabowo Subianto is aiming to achieve 8 percent GDP growth within the first three years of his presidency.