RI's competitiveness index improves : SBY

Presidential candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday said that the competitiveness index of Indonesia had increased significantly, meaning that the country's products can compete those from overseas.
“The country's competitiveness index has improved pretty well. For example, on the perception of easiness to doing business, Indonesia is at 129 this year, up from 154 a year earlier,” Yudhoyono told businessmen during an economic dialogue with Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (kadin) in the Jakarta Theater on Wednesday.
He said that export had contributed 1.3 percent to overall domestic products values in 2009.

“Last year, export contributed only 0.27 percent to the whole domestic product,” he said.
He said that many problems, such as high economical cost and lack of infrastuctures, had hampered the country to boost its economic growth.
“We needa lot of money to develop infrastructures. This year, we will allocate Rp 78 trillion (US$7,9 million) or 10 percent of the national budget (to improve the facilities),” he said.
He admitted that government had found some difficulties in adding more funds o build more infrastructures since it had allocated 20 of the budget for education.