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Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies

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In This Issue: Notes from the Editor

Pierre van der Eng
Published online: 30 Mar 2015.

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To cite this article: Pierre van der Eng (2015) In This Issue: Notes from the Editor, Bulletin of
Indonesian Economic Studies, 51:1, 1-2, DOI: 10.1080/00074918.2015.1016564
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Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Vol. 51, No. 1, 2015: 12

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IN THIS ISSUE
Notes from the Editor
This issue of BIES offers a diverse range of studies related to current issues in
Indonesias economy. The Survey of Recent Developments, by Yose R. Damuri
and Creina Day, takes stock of Indonesias first 100 days under President Joko
Widodo (Jokowi) and finds a mix of successful reforms and good intentions, but
also controversy. The historic cuts to fuel subsidies, for example, will shore up
Indonesias fiscal position, but Jokowis visions of Indonesia as a global maritime
axis seem to be just that. Indeed, it was the minister of maritime affairs who
joined the ministers of transportation and trade in introducing controversial policies that appear to have detracted from the broader reform agenda. The survey
authors also assess Indonesias macro performance and report on the new governments social-assistance programs and its inward trade and investment policy.
Trade policy also features in Joanne C. Gaskells article on palm-oil consumption. Gaskell points to the fast-growing domestic consumption of palm oil. She
finds that Indonesias growing appetite for palm oil cannot be explained merely
by increases in population and incomes. Rather, she points to a large-scale switch
in consumption away from the previously ubiquitous coconut oil, as a consequence of government policies related to technology, pricing, distribution, and
trade, as well as a rapid expansion of land under oil palm and a reduction in
smallholder competitiveness in coconut production. Gaskells modelling suggests
that Indonesias palm-oil consumption will more than double between 2010 and
2035.
Kaoru Natsuda, Kozo Otsuka, and John Thoburn consider the rapid rise in
Indonesian motor-vehicle output and foreign direct investment in the automotive
industry since the 1990s. Drawing on interviews with Japanese automotive firms
and Indonesian trade associations and ministries, among others, they contrast
the modest role of Indonesian-owned supplier companies with the situation in
Thailand. Although foreign suppliers offer opportunities for local suppliers to
upgrade their capabilities, the authors conclude that local producers often have
little chance of becoming first-tier suppliers themselves. Despite general concerns
about the competitiveness of Indonesian manufacturers, the authors find that
Japanese automotive investors are optimistic about Indonesias export potential.
Looking at exports more broadly, Kym Anderson and Anna Strutt suggest that
Indonesia could increase its share of world exports by 80% by 2030, depending,
for one, on levels of economic growth in China and India. They conclude this
by modelling Indonesias trade patterns to 2020 and 2030 under different trade
and policy scenarios. Subsequently, they use their model to assess the potential
impacts by 2020 of three policy issues. One is an increase in global rice exports, following the opening of Myanmar. This will impact only marginally on Indonesia,
ISSN 0007-4918 print/ISSN 1472-7234 online/15/0001-2
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00074918.2015.1016564

2015 Indonesia Project ANU

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In This Issue: Notes from the Editor

but its rice self-sufficiency is likely to decrease slightly. This could be significant
at a time when the president has committed his administration to achieving rice
self-sufficiency. The authors modelling predicts that the ban on unprocessed commodity exports will lower the value of Indonesias exports, and that the intention
to achieve self-sufficiency in a range of food commodities through trade protection will have consequences that reduce GDP as well as household welfare and
the consumption of farm products.
Kitae Sohn uses data from the 2007 round of the Indonesia Family Life Survey
to analyse gender discrimination in earnings. He finds that women, whether in
paid work or self-employment, earned about 30% less than men. Differences in
factors that can be accounted for, such as educational attainment, types of jobs,
and sectors of employment, explain only some of the income gap. The remainder
could well be the result of discrimination against women. More specifically, Sohn
suggests that the glass-ceiling effect is not strong in Indonesia, but rather that discrimination against women across the range of income earners is pervasive, more
so for the self-employed than for paid employees.
In the final article in this issue, Richard W. Carney and Natasha HamiltonHart ask what happened to business groups and the high concentration of company ownership in Indonesia after Soeharto. They dissect patterns of corporate
ownership in Indonesia in 1996 and 2008 and find that ownership patterns and
businessgovernment relations across these years exhibited continuities as well
as notable changes. For example, family ownership remained prevalent, but the
identities of several of the families changed. By 2008, state-owned enterprises
were more prominent, and foreign governments owned a greater share of Indonesias largest corporations than they did in 1996.
Our abstracts of doctoral theses on the Indonesian economy include a study
of the relation between public expenditure management and inequalities in health
outcomes in Bengkulu province, and a study of regional income disparities, particularly the contribution of spatial inequality to overall inequality and to social
and political stability. Our book reviews respond to an analysis of East Asian
development between 1960 and 2010, a collaborative report on maternal and neonatal mortality in Indonesia, and a history of union organisation in urban Java in
the 1920s and 1930s.
In 2015 we celebrate the fact that BIES has been published continuously for
over 50 yearsa feather in the cap of the Indonesia Project. At this high point I bid
my farewell as editor of the journal. During the last three years, I have been proud
of being involved in producing the Indonesia Projects four-monthly miracle (as
founding editor Heinz Arndt often called it), which since 1965 has, without pause,
brought readers some of the best and most robust independent analysis of Indonesias economy. As part of this years celebrations, the August 2015 issue, which
will be edited by a new team of editors comprising Blane Lewis, Arianto Patunru,
and Robert Sparrow, will reflect on the 50 years of analysis of key issues in Indonesias economic development. Selamat membaca!
Pierre van der Eng