Is Indonesia Considered Poor? Understanding Its Economic Status & Challenges

I’d like to share with everyone about my trip to Indonesia at the beginning of the month. We went there for an exhibition, so we didn’t take many photos, but please bear with me.

Today, I want to talk about the Indonesian market. The first impression or stereotype that most of us have about Southeast Asian markets like Indonesia is: poor. This was also my first time visiting this country, and I want to share what I saw in the place I visited.

The place I went to was Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Indonesia has a population of 260 million people, with a per capita GDP of $3,800. China’s per capita GDP is $13,000, and in some developed cities, it is $27,000, such as Shanghai and Shenzhen. Comparing these figures, is Indonesia indeed poor?

From this perspective, yes, but look at pictures 1-4. These are local supermarkets in Jakarta, where you can find Miniso, KKV, BYD, and Uniqlo. The clothes inside range from a few hundred to a thousand dollars, and it’s almost no different from China.

Of course, besides that, our first impression of Indonesia was like the last picture, with stalls everywhere, crowded together, looking unsanitary, and not daring to eat. There were even people sitting on the roadside (no photos taken), and if you wanted to pass, you had to go through the crowd. The people there have darker skin than ours, and when I first arrived and saw this situation at night, I was indeed a bit scared.

Friends kept telling us to be careful when going out because we were careless and didn’t do any research before coming, and we just came without much preparation.

After a few days, I found that the people here are very warm, not anti-Chinese, and quite friendly. There are Chinese restaurants and Chinese people everywhere. Most of the wealthy people here are Chinese, and their purchasing power is not low, but the majority are still like the last picture; the rich are in the minority.

This place seems to be a blend of Eastern and Western cultures. At night, they all drink, sing, and dance together, having a great time. In China, you don’t see such natural and beautiful dancing.

Overall, there was no sense of backwardness. Eating, drinking, accommodation, and transportation were all quite convenient, and the market consumption was not low, breaking my stereotype.