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The telltale signs that global economy is slowing down was when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that it planned to revise the 2022 global economic outlook on July 26. It is worth noting that the IMF has done this twice so far this year. In January, global economic growth was estimated to be around 4.4 percent, down from October 2021 projection of 4.9 percent. Then, in April the IMF again slashed its forecast to 3.6 percent after Russia attacked Ukraine, thrusting the global economy further into uncertainty. Many countries are now staring at sharp economic downturn, and even the risk of recession is rising by the day. 

The threat of a global food crisis looms, following the Covid-19 pandemic, starting in 2020. Many reputable international organizations have predicted a crisis as food prices are swelling; further, Covid-19 has disrupted the logistics system, and the food value chain has been negatively affected. Nevertheless, some two years after the emergence of Covid-19, the global food system has proven quite resilient, with adequate production performance in most countries. The average price of rice in Indonesia has been quite stable, sustained at Rp 11,800/kg for two years, so that warnings about any food crisis by many international institutions are taken lightly. 

Indonesia, as a resource-rich Southeast Asian country, does not wish to be a vassal of Western countries, but rather the leader of Southeast Asian and even Asian countries. From June 26 to 28, Indonesian President Joko Widodo attended the G7 summit in Germany. Following the meeting, he traveled to Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, then to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and lastly to the United Arab Emirates. 

Jakarta, IO - One of a country’s national development goals is to improve the welfare of its people by improving the education, health and economic sectors. Therefore, the government often increases the budget for welfare spending. Even during the pandemic-induced economic downturn, the government spending continues to increase. In 2021, the Indonesian government spent Rp2,786.37 trillion, up 7.4% year on year. In 2022, this is likely to hit Rp3,106.4 trillion. To catch up with the growing expenditure, the state needs to optimize domestic source of revenue, one being through tax collection. 

Indonesia is the fourth-largest country in the world, by population, with 270 million people, 17,500 islands and 34 provinces. Its capital city, Jakarta, is home to more than 11 million people. Jakarta is one of the biggest cities in the world, and the city itself contributes 17% to the nation’s economy, which is an astonishing number for just one city. However, an increase in population and energy consumption every year has exacerbated its carbon footprint. Uncontrolled greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions released into the atmosphere from human activity are very detrimental to the environment. 

The importance of excellent teachers in school cannot be overstated. In the hands of good teachers, a bad curriculum will generate good graduates, and vice versa. Finland is noted for its exceptional education due to its highly skilled teachers. Teachers in Finland are just as smart and skilled as doctors and engineers. They, like doctors and engineers, are highly regarded. This encourages intelligent, high-achieving young people to undergo training and persue a teaching career. Those who opt to enroll in the country’s teacher training institutions (LPTK) are not among the top ten best high school graduates, unlike here in Indonesia. 

The greatest threat to Indonesia’s food security is not a lack of production capacity, but our proclivity for enacting overly broad and frequently changing regulations. This is what I call overregulation: when there are too many cross-sectoral policies, the state fails to deliver food at steady and affordable price. 

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo gave Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan a new mission: to regulate the distribution of cooking oil to the general public about two weeks ago. It’s unclear what the president’s consideration was behind the decision. Indeed, in the last six months, cooking oil shortage and price spike have become a conundrum and source of headache for the government. 

Soaring food and energy prices that have driven up inflation are threatening the global economy, including that of Indonesia. All countries have taken various measures to control inflation, a main obstacle to economic recovery. The dire situation triggered by two major events, namely supply chain disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical turmoil sparked by the Russian-Ukraine conflict.

In comparison to the grim situation in 2020, the economies of G20 member countries improved in 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic had been so severe that only two G20 member countries, China (by 2.2 percent) and Turkey (by 1.2 percent ), were still able to produce positive annual GDP in 2020. In 2020, the remaining G20 states and the European Union experienced an average contraction of 4.9 percent.

The spirit of workers’ struggle for better living conditions in the nineteenth century, which gave rise to the annual celebration of International Labor Day on May 1, commemorated as ‘May Day’, continues to inspire the labor movement today. The initial struggle to secure the right to work for a maximum of 8 hours per day, which has since become a regulation in many countries, continues to inspire workers to fight for basic rights such as job security, decent living, the right to form a union and negotiate with employers, social security, and so on.