Indonesia Lags Way Behind Southeast Asian Neighbors

Jakarta Globe, Arientha Primanita, May 14, 2015

Students dancing dangdut after the drinking jamu together at Sukoharjo district,
Solo, Central Java, April 1, 2015. The ceremony of drinking jamu together follows
by thousands students as a campaign to promote Jamu as a healthy drinks for
youth and mark the Sukoharjo as the Jamu district in Indonesia. (JG Photo/
Jurnasyanto Sukarno)

Indonesia has ranked 69th out of 124 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Human Capital Index 2015, which studied countries’ success in nurturing, deploying and developing human resources.

The country is left lagging behind its Southeast Asian neighbors of the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore which ranked 46th, 52nd, 24th respectively.

Southeast Asia’s largest economy is classified under lower to middle income nations, along with those which have an income per capita ranging from $1,045 per year to $4,125 per year.

The WEF’s Human Capital Index 2015 is a study of 124 countries covering 46 indicators that measure how far a country is from optimizing its human resources talent — including evaluating the levels of education, skills and employment available — to people across five different age groups, beginning with under 15 years to over 65 years.

Measured by age, Indonesia rank 47th for human capital index in the under 15 age group, partly thanks to the high score in the primary enrolment rate and secondary enrolment rate.

Indonesia scored the worst in the category of 65 and Over Age Group (92rd), with scores in educational attainment, including secondary education, is much lower than the country’s other age groups.

On a 1 to 7 scale in which 1 is the worst score and 7 the best, Indonesia scored 1 for social safety net, internet access in schools and university-business research and development collaboration.

Finland ranked number one in the index, with an overall score of 86 percent.

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