Indonesia's Infrastructure Competitiveness Lags Far Behind Singapore's

Indonesia's infrastructure competitiveness still lags behind other Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia. However, it surpasses Vietnam and the Philippines. The archipelagic nature of the country, spanning 5.1 million square kilometers from Sabang to Merauke, presents a significant challenge to the government in enhancing national infrastructure competitiveness.

In the *Global Competitiveness Report 2018*, Indonesia's infrastructure pillar score was 66.8 out of 100, ranking 71st out of 140 surveyed countries. Within ASEAN, Indonesia ranked 5th, below Thailand and above Vietnam. Indonesia's infrastructure competitiveness score lagged 28.88 points behind Singapore, which holds the highest competitiveness ranking in Southeast Asia and globally.

The Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla administration has striven to improve Indonesia's competitiveness by increasing the infrastructure development budget. Since 2015, the budget has risen to Rp 256.1 trillion, a 65% increase from the previous year. The infrastructure budget further increased to Rp 410.4 trillion in 2018. This year, the government has allocated Rp 415 trillion for infrastructure development.