Indonesia to run thousands of kitchens as free meals initiative starts in January 

 

Indonesia will open thousands of kitchens across the country next year as the incoming government led by president-elect Prabowo Subianto kicks off his multi-billion dollar free meals program, the head of the agency running the initiative said on Tuesday. 

 

Prabowo will be sworn in as Indonesia's next president on Oct. 20. In the first stage of his plan, meals will be given to around 20 million students from January at a cost of 71 trillion rupiah ($4.54 billion). 

 

When running at full scale, the free meals program, which aims to end malnutrition in the country, will reach 83 million recipients, including pregnant mothers, and cost around $28 billion annually. 

 

Dadan Hindayana, the head of the national nutrition agency, told an investment forum that at least 5,000 kitchens, called 'service units', will be set up next year, before ramping up to 30,000 units in 2027. 

 

"The unit will not only operate as a kitchen but also have a role as a buyer for local agriculture products," Dadan said, adding the units will create over one million new jobs. 

 

The estimated demand for food under this program next year is at 312,000 metric tons of rice, 546,000 metric tons of chicken meat or 4.68 billion eggs, 936 million liter of milk and 546,000 metric tons of vegetables, according to Reuters calculation based on the agency's data and accounting for six days a week. 

 

Dadan said one kitchen, which would serve 3,000 children, would have a daily consumption of 200 kg of rice, 350 kg of chicken meat or 3,000 eggs, 600 liter of milk and 350 kg vegetables. 

 

The nutrition agency will prioritize sourcing the food from local farmers and also will adjust the menus based on availability, Dadan said. 

 

Source: Reuters 

Next government plans to build three million houses annually 

 

Chairman of the President-elect Task Force, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, revealed that the upcoming government will build 15 million houses in its five-year administration, with three million targeted every year. 

 

"Not only three million (in one government term) but we want to build three million houses every year," Djojohadikusumo emphasized here on Thursday. 

 

He explained that the program for annually building three million houses comprised one million apartment units in urban areas and two million in rural areas. 

 

"The target is one million (apartment units) in urban areas and two million houses in rural areas every year," he remarked. 

 

He noted that the construction of two million houses in village areas can aid in the creation of jobs there. 

 

Minister of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Basuki Hadimuljono earlier welcomed the three million house program initiated by President-elect Prabowo Subianto and Vice President-elect Gibran Rakabuming Raka. 

 

Hadimuljono said that the program can help overcome the housing backlog or shortage that currently reached 12.7 million houses. 

 

Meanwhile, Prabowo has promised to build three million houses every year, namely one million houses each in village, urban, and coastal areas. 

 

The housing construction program is part of the main programs in his upcoming administration called the National Transformation Strategy. 

 

So far, the government has provided various housing programs in the form of financial assistance, especially for the lower middle-income group to own a house. 

 

There is a backlog of 12.7 million houses, as the land prices are increasingly high and hence become more limited. 

 

Currently, the government has offered subsidized houses that can be purchased with a mortgage or KPR. 

 

Source: Antaranews 

Retailers downbeat as consumer confidence declines  

 

Retailers in Indonesia have expressed pessimism in their sales outlook one day after another survey showed that consumer confidence in the country is weakening. 

 

Retailers in Indonesia have expressed pessimism with regard to their sales outlook one day after another survey showed that consumer confidence in the country is weakening.  

 

Preliminary data published by Bank Indonesia (BI) on Wednesday based on a survey conducted in August showed that retailers were expecting lower sales in the month ahead. 

 

The central bank’s retail sales index (RSI) projected a decline to a reading of 210.5 in September, marking a 2.5 percent drop from 215.9 points registered in August.  

 

While the latest index value is up when compared with the 201.1 logged in September last year, the 4.7 percent year-on-year increase lags behind Indonesia’s GDP growth of around 5 percent.  

 

Freshly installed BI spokesperson Ramdan Denny Prakoso attributed the monthly drop to “declining public demand as retailers’ special offers for Independence Day ended”, according to a statement released together with the survey results on Wednesday.  

 

The discounts had pushed up August’s RSI by 1.7 percent month-to-month (mtm), but that came after a steep drop of 7.2 percent mtm recorded in July.  

 

The report states that spare parts and accessories, as well as vehicle fuel were among the goods that sold better in September.  

 

On the other hand, a prolonged slump in sales of information and communication technology devices since the start of the year continued in September, contributing to a steep annual contraction of 11.2 percent.  

 

The latest RSI survey also shows that the responding retailers were more pessimistic about the short-term outlook, as they expected an annual drop in revenue over the six months through February 2025.  

 

BI attributed the muted outlook to a normalization in demand that typically follows the Christmas and New Year holiday season. 

 

The sales outlook for the three months through November, however, was positive as retailers expect shoppers to gear up for the year-end festivities.  

 

Meanwhile, the consumer confidence index (CCI) decreased in September to a reading of 123.5 from 124.4 in August, according to the results of a separate BI survey released on Tuesday.  

 

The downtick was most noticeable in respondents’ assessment of the overall economic prospects for the next six months, as reflected in the consumer expectations subindex.  

 

That subindex captures consumers’ expectations regarding their income, the availability of jobs and business activity, all of which declined in September from the preceding month.  

 

The current economic conditions subindex, which reflects consumers’ views of their income situation, job availability and planned durable goods purchases, was more of a mix, as consumers saw more jobs created.  

 

While both the CCI and RSI indexes provide insight into the consumption side of the economy, an index that tracks the production side also provides little grounds for optimism. 

 

Published by S&P Global on Oct. 1, the latest manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) for Indonesia showed a reading of 49.2 in September.  

 

While that was an improvement from 48.9 logged in August, it marked the third month in a row that the key gauge of factory activity remained in negative territory, or below the 50-point threshold between expansion and contraction. 

 

Source: The Jakarta Post