Indonesia Development Forum 2019: Exploring Innovation to Seize Future Inclusive Work Opportunities 

The Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, Jusuf Kalla, opens the Indonesia Development Forum (IDF) 2019 event at the Jakarta Convention Centre (JCC) in Jakarta, July 22, 2019.  This two-day forum, held from July 22-23, serves as a platform for development practitioners in the public, private, and non-profit sector to convene, exchange ideas, and explore solutions to address development challenges in Indonesia. 

This year, IDF 2019 highlights the theme of “Mission Possible: Seizing the Opportunities of Future Work to Drive Inclusive Growth”, and is attended by more than 250 national and international speakers from various backgrounds in different industries and sectors. In his welcoming remarks, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said that the future holds a myriad of challenges, including those related to technological advancement, which has altered many aspects of life, including behavior. 

“Of course, we have to address these challenges with the appropriate human resource capacity,” he said. 

According to Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Indonesia must be a part of innovation. For this purpose, policies are not only required from top to bottom but also from the bottom up, which hopefully will emerge from IDF. 

“Not only ideas but also good practices going forward,” he continued.

The discussions in IDF 2019 is in line with one of the priority agenda of the Government of Indonesia, namely developing competitive human resources and creating quality jobs through structural transformation and investment climate improvement. This theme was selected in consideration that Indonesia will soon enter the peak of its demographic bonus, with a projected number of its productive age population reaching 68 percent, or equivalent to 200 million people. To best utilise this bonus to drive the economic growth of the state, there needs to be a proper strategy and planning in improving human resource productivity, and the ability to adapt to rapid technological changes. 

Meanwhile, the Minister of National Development Planning/Head of National Development Planning Agency, Bambang Broedjonegoro, conveyed that it is important for Indonesia to develop strategies to face the increasingly competitive global labor market in driving a more rapid economic growth. 

“Last year, Indonesia’s economy grew 5.3 percent. We were able to create jobs for 2.98 million people and reduce Open Unemployment Rate or Tingkat Pengangguran Terbuka (TPT) to 5.34 percent,” said Minister Bambang. 

“Indonesia’s Human Development Index (HDI) also improved by 0.82 percent, to 71.39. However, compared to some neighbouring countries, the quality of Indonesia’s human resources, according to HDI data, is still ranked in the middle,” he continued.  

There are eight sub-themes in IDF 2019 that will be discussed in this year’s forum, namely: (1) Accelerating Structural Transformation; (2) Reforming the Vocational Education and Training (TVET) System for Future Jobs; (3) Creating Inclusive Employment Opportunities; (4) Improving the Investment Climate for Employment Creation; (5) Developing Globally Competitive Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises; (6) Fostering Social Enterprises; (7) Developing Local Talent and Local Markets; and (8) Improving the Quality of Human Capital. IDF 2019 uses the 4I approach, which stands for Inspire, Imagine, Innovate, and Initiate, in which all participants can play an active role in conveying their inputs on future work ideas to the Ministry of National Development Planning/Head of National Development Planning Agency. 

Representing the Government of Australia, the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Gary Quinlan, emphasised that a key target of the Australia-Indonesia is to reduce inequality through policy reform so that a stable economic growth can be achieved. 

“Australia continues to be committed and is delighted to support Indonesia’s efforts in improving workforce flexibility and inclusiveness to continue to compete at the global level and adapt to swift work pattern changes,” said Gary. 

“We hope our support for this activity will contribute to evidence-based policy establishment for a more advanced workforce in Indonesia,” Gary continued.

To capture ideas and thinking from multiple layers of the community, since the beginning of the year, the Ministry of National Development Planning/Head of National Development Planning Agency has organized a series of ‘Road to IDF’ in various cities in Indonesia, including Batam, Semarang, Sorong, Kupang, and Jakarta. For the first time, IDF 2019 will also invite a pilot province to share developmental best practices in the region. East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) was selected for this session because of its success in placing as the second lowest position in the national Open Unemployment Rate for two consecutive years, namely in 2017 and 2018. 

This session will also explore development challenges in NTT, and ideas to create productive jobs in the future for the welfare of the people within the province. Also, this year we also initiate an IDEA Space (IDEAS), a forum for startup actors, including investors and incubators, to establish networks and provide inputs to the Government of Indonesia on future work opportunities. 

There are over 75 beginner and intermediate successful startups that will share their experience with other beginner startups and participants. These collected ideas and innovations will serve as recommendation for the government in formulating evidence-based policies to seize opportunities for future work. 

IDF 2019, which marks the third consecutive year of its implementation,  is organized by the Ministry of National Development Planning/Head of National Development Planning Agency and is supported by the Government of Australia through Knowledge Sector Initiative (KSI). KSI is a collaboration program between the Indonesian and Australian government aiming to improve the welfare of Indonesian people through higher-quality public policies that use research, analysis, and evidence in a better way. 

The result of this IDF will serve as an input that supports the government’s efforts in developing evidence-based policy solutions on creating and seizing work opportunities to drive inclusive growth. We will continue to provide you with IDF coverage through its website and social media.