(May 15): Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto is confident that he will be able to help the country win the world’s fastest-growing economy tag early in his term, by focusing on industrialisation and food and energy security.

“I am very confident” of achieving 8% growth and “determined to go beyond”, Prabowo, who’s set to succeed President Joko Widodo in October, told Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin at the Qatar Economic Forum on Wednesday. It should be doable within two to three years, he said.

“We want to produce our diesel from palm oil. This will be a very strong growth driver,” he said. Indonesia imports US$20 billion (RM94.07 billion) worth of diesel, as he touted the huge savings that would result from the switch to biofuel. He also underlined agriculture as an area to propel growth.

Prabowo’s goal, which is more ambitious than the 7% that has eluded the incumbent leader after a decade in power, will make Indonesia the world’s fastest-growing major economy — a title currently held by India.

Indonesia has only expanded by an average of 5% over the last 20 years, despite major legal reforms to boost investment and a boom in minerals downstreaming.

Prabowo said while downstreaming — wherein more raw commodities are refined locally before being exported — is important to industrialise, he acknowledged that it would take years to achieve that.

“What would be the growth drivers in the first few years would be our concentration on agriculture”, food production and energy self-sufficiency, he said.

The president-elect said the nation’s fiscal prudence over the years and low debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio gives it room to be more 'daring' to achieve faster growth.

Prabowo is focused on reducing poverty and improving child nutrition to help unlock more benefits from the country’s massive, young population. One of his key campaign pledges is to give free lunches and milk to more than 80 million students, which he also expects to create employment for women and small businesses. The programme could cost as much as 460 trillion rupiah (US$28.7 billion or RM134.99 billion) a year, more than the entire 2023 budget deficit.

The nation’s next leader plans to increase tax revenue to 14%-16% of GDP to fund his spending promises while upholding fiscal discipline. The government is mandated by law to cap the budget deficit at 3% of GDP — and Prabowo has declared no plans to change that.