|
 Jakarta
is the capital city The territory of the Republic of Indonesia
stretches from 6º 08' north latitude to 11º 15' south latitude,
and from 94º 45' to 141º 05' east longitude. The Indonesian sea
area is four times greater than its land area, which is about
1.9 million sq. km. The sea area is about 7.9 million sq. km
(including an exclusive economic zone) and constitutes about 81%
of the total area of the country.
Indonesia has about 500
tribes and correspondingly, it has about 500 languages and
dialects spoken in the archipelago. The population in Indonesia
has now reach the fourth most populated country in the world
after China, India, and the United States of America. In 2000,
population of Indonesia is 206,264,595.
Indonesia is located in
tropical area with an average relative humidity between 70% and
90%. The minimum humidity is 73% and maximum is 87%. The climate
changes every six months. The dry season (June to September) is
influenced by the Australian continental air masses; while the
rainy season (December to March) is the result of the Asian and
Pacific Ocean air masses. The transitional periods between the
two seasons are April to May and October to November.
Agriculture is the key
sector in the Indonesian economy since the majority of the
people depends their livelihood in this sector. The share of
workforce and GDP from this sector to the national figure shows
declining trend. The workforce in agricultural sector in 1968 is
61% from total workforce, and it declines to 45% in 1998. While
the share of GDP from agriculture sector is 42% in 1968 and it
declines to 15% in 1996.
Some indicators of
macroeconomic development are as follows1:
-
Gross domestic
product in 2000 rose by 4.9 % compared to the previous year
-
In the period
January-December 2000, exports and imports rose respectively
by 27.6% and 31.9%. The surplus on the balance of trade is
US $25.04 billion.
-
The rate of inflation
tended to increase to 11.5 % in 2001.
The major food crops are
rice and secondary crops, especially corn, cassava, soybean and
groundnuts, where in 2001, its production in million tons were
49.6; 9.2; 16.6; 0.8; and 0.7 respectively. Other important food
crops are fruits and vegetables where their production achieved
8.1 and 10.4 million tons respectively. Estate crops play an
important role in Agricultural Sector. The productions of estate
crops, in million tons were palm oil 6.7; sugar cane 1.6; coffee
0.5 and cocoa 0.4 tons respectively. Beside the crops, livestock
and fisheries products are also increasing, among others meats
1.4 million tons, eggs 1.1 and fish 6.0 million tons
respectively. Despite the attempts to diversify agricultural
production, more than half of its GDP consists of food crops,
and more than 60% of major food crops are produced in Java. |
