There's no such thing as a free lunch...Or is there?

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It's official. The next president of Indonesia is former army general Prabowo Subianto. Quite how the next five years will pan out is anyone's guess but hopefully the foreign pundits who always bring up his dodgy human rights record will be proven wrong. Nonetheless, on policy making, Prabowo's popularist move to literally offer the poor 'a free lunch' every day of the week does not augur well for the future. Such a policy - if it ever came to fruition - would cost a phenomenal amount of money and likely lead to huge inefficiencies (food waste) and poor incentives (make people lazy). Another concern is Prabowo's strong nationalist bent. Thus, in the possible event that he finds himself with his back against the proverbial wall in the face of stern economic challenges, there is a big chance that he will simply scapegoat foreigners. But he will have to be careful. Construction of the new capital city, Nusantara, for example, is highly dependent on foreign in

Indonesia plans ‘Disneyland’ to stem growing financial crisis

By Anita Beer

The formula has worked in Florida, Hong Kong and Paris. 

Now officials in Jakarta, eager to restore investor confidence in the beleaguered financial markets, want to build a “Disneyland for Indonesia”. 

The tourism and hospitality minister, told the country’s official news agency, that the government was planning to construct a US$300m (Rp3 trillion) theme park at the site of the uncompleted Hambalang project near Bogor, which has caused the state estimated losses of Rp 463.6 billion so far.

Before:

After:


“Besides deflecting public attention away from this damaging scandal and restoring the reputation of the ruling Democrat Party, the development of a “Disneyland for Indonesia" will bring in huge foreign revenues”, said the minister. 

“Just look at France, the US and Hong Kong,” the minister said. “They don’t have currency crises do they? And what do they all have in common? Disneyland!”

The minister also outlined elaborate plans for shopping malls, banks and exhibition and entertainment facilities such as karaoke rooms and plus plus spas.

In recent years, shopping malls have been the bedrock of the Indonesian economy and in Jakarta the ratio of people to shopping malls is now about 8 :1.

“We will create a free zone with a banking centre where even people who do not necessarily live in Indonesia will still be able to open bank accounts,” he said. 

This growth would be sustainable claimed the minister.

Despite the ambitious scale of the project the minister was confident of finding politicians willing to dress up in funny costumes like Mickey Mouse.

"After all, there are many cartoon characters in Jakarta", he explained.


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