Riau Islands: Top Province for Sustainable Economic Competitiveness Index in 2022

Riau Islands was named the region with the highest competitiveness index in sustainable economics in 2022. This is based on the Sustainable Regional Competitiveness Index (IDSDB) released by the Regional Autonomy Implementation Monitoring Committee (KPPOD) together with Terra Komunika and Kinara Indonesia.

“Economic sustainability is seen in the general performance of the macroeconomy, including value creation, capital accumulation, sectoral contributions, purchasing power, and so on,” as quoted from the official IDSDB website, Wednesday (22/2/2023).

This index aims to measure the achievements of regions in strengthening competitiveness sustainably. The measurement of this index is a combination of contributions from a number of documents and findings from various institutions.

There are four main pillars that are benchmarks in the IDSDB, namely the sustainable environment pillar, sustainable economy pillar, social inclusion pillar, and sustainable governance pillar.

In the sustainable economy pillar, the IDSDB is measured using the following variables:

* Sustainable economic support (sustainable base sector and regional support capacity).
* Regional financial capacity (regional fiscal independence).
* Investment ecosystem (regional investment growth and construction cost index).
* Employment (labor force growth).
* Availability of economic infrastructure (road quality; electrification ratio; and internet availability).

The index measurement results are formulated into a score on a scale of 0-100, with the following categorization:

* Score 0 to 30: Low competitiveness
* Score 30.01 to 60: Moderate competitiveness
* Score 60.01 to 80: High competitiveness
* Score 80.01 to 100: Very high competitiveness

Riau Islands achieved a score of 62.78 in the sustainable economy pillar. This score falls into the high competitiveness category and is also the best score among the 29 provinces researched.

Next, Yogyakarta Special Region ranks second with a sustainable economy pillar IDSDB score of 62.10. Then, there are Bali and Central Sulawesi with scores of 61.45 and 59.24 respectively.

“It is hoped that the IDSDB can serve as one of the foundations in national and regional development patterns, as well as a reference for public and non-public incentives for regions,” said the IDSDB drafting team.

For further information, the complete Sustainable Regional Competitiveness Index (IDSDB) report can be accessed at [this link](https://idsdb.id/index/data/?dat=nasional.svg).