JAKARTA, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- President Joko Widodo on Tuesday said poverty, unemployment, and social inequality as main challenges that Indonesia needs to tackle in pursuing the acceleration of development.
In his annual Independence Day speech, Joko said that all of Indonesia's presidents have worked very hard to overcome the three challenges, but the country continues to struggle with them especially with the ongoing global shifts.
"We still face those problems, but the difference is that now we are also in the middle of the fierce global competition. This is an era where all countries are connected to one another, and a nation's problem can become a problem for other nations across the world," said the president who took office in October 2014.
Joko said that his administration is currently focusing on implementing three measures to overcome the challenges: expediting infrastructure development, preparing productive capacity and human resources, and deregulation and de-bureaucratization.
To implement those measures, Joko vowed that the government would carry out legal and bureaucratic reformation, reorganizing the management of development budget, partaking in international politics, and maintaining Indonesia's democracy, political stability, and security.
