Publications

It is argued in Indonesia that many local governments experience challenges in governing  their regions and in improving locals’ standard of living. Some studies suggest that more authorities to local government could not by itself boost economic performances of local and regional economies. Decentralisation has not significantly linked to better economic outcome measured by gross domestic product. The most common factors mentioned in literature that has undermined regional development under decentralisation in Indonesia are significant heterogeneity in endowments, factor immobility and endogenous deterioration of local institutions, including corruptive behaviour in the local government administration. These arguments serve as an introduction to the following ten chapters on strengthening regional and local economy in Indonesia.

The current President of Indonesia, Jokowi, has expressed his desire for Indonesia to become a strong maritime country.  His vision is for maritime transportation, infrastructure and economic activities to become the backbone of Indonesian economy.  The challenges to achieve this goal, however, are immense. Based on the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive Report for 2013/2014, Indonesia’s infrastructure and connectivity ranked 61 out of 149. This book addresses problems related to Indonesia’s maritime infrastructure and regional development through deeper analysis of local, regional and national perspectives and offers solutions.

This book discusses demographic changes and regional development in Indonesia. The first part consists of chapters discussing the demographic dividend period, characterized by a decrease in the Indonesian dependency ratio, thus posing less of a challenge to both the Indonesian economy and regional development. Chapters in the second part of the book focus on migration, urbanization, and inter-connectivity, as the movement of people is an important issue governing regional demographic and labour market balances. Chapters related to education and health issues as the driver of human capital investment make up the third part of this book. Finally, the last part discusses classical regional inequality issues that will remain a challenge for Indonesia for several decades to come.