Indonesia’s leader highlights economic and infrastructure developments in his final state of nation

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s outgoing President Joko Widodo highlighted advances in the economy and infrastructure during his final State of the Nation address Friday.

Widodo said that in the 10 years he’s led the country, his administration controlled inflation, reduced rates of unemployment and extreme poverty, and built new infrastructure in parts of Indonesia that were difficult to reach and with limited resources.

“Furthermore, our resilience as a nation has been proven by our endurance in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, in facing climate change, and in facing the escalating global geopolitics,” Widodo said.

The Southeast Asian nation plays a crucial role in the economic and political dynamics of a region where global powers have been increasingly at odds over Taiwan, human rights issues, U.S. military presence, and Beijing’s assertive actions in contested areas like the South China Sea.

As a tropical archipelago on the equator, Indonesia has the world’s third-largest rainforest, home to diverse endangered species like orangutans and giant flowers. However, economic development has severely impacted these forests, making Indonesia one of the largest global emitters of greenhouse gases due to deforestation, fossil fuel use, and peatland fires, prompting the country’s push for a green energy transformation.

Widodo said Indonesia’s developments — particularly related to smelters and processing industries for commodities such as nickel, bauxite, and copper — would open up more than 200,000 jobs and increase state revenues.

With a population of about 275 million, Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy, and has the largest reserves of nickel in the world. Aiming to dominate the world’s nickel supply, the