CANDIDATES' ECONOMIC GROWTH TARGETS TOO HIGH : OBSERVER

Jakarta, June 24 (ANTARA) - Economic observer Dr Fredrick Benu said that the economic growth targets set by presidential candidates for the next five years were too high.

"In the coming five years the country's economic growth will increase if there is no economic turmoil but it is impossible to reach over six percent, not to mention a two-digit figure," Fredrick Benu of the Nusa Cendana University said here on Tuesday.

Fredrick Benu said that although macro economic indicators were relatively conducive, the average economic growth in the coming five years will not exceed the six percent level.

He also questioned what spectacular programs the presidential candidates were offering so that they set such a high economic growth target.

"I think there is nothing unsual in their programs, their programs even tend to be monotonous. What appears to be different is the way they communicate with the public," he said.

He said that even though they could have differences in performing economic development, the differences could not be too obvious.

After all, the country's economic growth would be determine not only by domestic policies but also by the condition of the global economy, he added.

The same opinion was also expressed by economic observer Dr Thomas Ola Langoday who was asked to comment on the economic growth targets promised by presidential candidates at over six percent, which is over the country's present economic growth target at 4.5 percent.

"In the current global financial crisis it would be very difficult to reach an economic growth as set by presidential candidates. That is actually a political target set to exert a psychological influence on their constituents," Thomas Ola Langoday of the Kupang-based Mandira Widya University (UNIKA).

He said that Indonesia was rich in natural resources but its population was poor because the state had been mismanaged.

Langoday said mismanagement and corruption took place both in the central government and regional administrations up to villages.

Projects were done with incompetence and low quality so that the same projects were often done again and again.

"This is a waste of time and money that creates difficulties for the economy to grow to a higher level," he added.