Growth Curve

By 2050, Indonesia is predicted to be the world’s fourth-largest economy. How will it achieve this? Jenny Southan reports from Jakarta.

- Jenny Southan

Jet-lagged in Jakarta, I open the curtains and look out on the sleeping metropolis. The roads, chock-full of crawling traffic during the day, are empty at this time. And even through the double-glazed windows of the 56th floor of the Westin (the tallest hotel in the country), I can hear the 4am call to prayer rising up among the darkened tower blocks.

Indonesia has the world’s biggest Muslim population (87 per cent of 252 million people), and there are hundreds of mosques all over the capital where devotees go to pray up to five times a day. The National Mosque is the largest in South East Asia, with space for 200,000 people, but Jakarta has also been experimenting with “mosque-mobiles”, to make worship during busy times, such as Ramadan, easier.

For many, attending mosques is as much a part of life as visiting the city’s 250 or so glitzy marble shopping malls, new symbols to consumerism built for the burgeoning middle class. There are now around 88 million Indonesians that fit into this demographic – greater than the entire population of the UK. That’s a lot of spending power.

Chris Wren, chief executive officer of the British Chamber of Commerce (britcham.or.id), says: “Twenty years ago, there were only a few Indonesians that could afford to visit an international restaurant. Now the middle classes are dining. The wealth is filtering down.” The presence of many familiar international brands – from M&S, Tesco, Debenhams, H&M and the Body Shop to Armani, Bose, Ralph Lauren, Nike and Tag Heuer – attest to investor confidence in consumer demand.