Jakarta. Indonesia is on track to crack into the top 4 of the world's largest economies in 2050, according to President Prabowo Subianto as he slammed the "Indonesia Gelap" or "Dark Indonesia" movement.

Prabowo, who has only been in office for 4 months, recently boasted how Indonesia had a bright future ahead, saying that reports had shown the country's economic size could beat that of rich nations like Germany and France.

His statement came not long after Indonesian students staged the nationwide Dark Indonesia protests to express discontent over Prabowo's policies, including his massive budget cuts of Rp 306.7 trillion ($18.7 billion) on state spending. They feared that budget austerity measures of such scale could disrupt services related to healthcare and education. The Dark Indonesia movement also gained traction on social media platforms. Speaking at the Democratic Party's congress on Wednesday, Prabowo made a reference to the protests in an attempt to dispel doubts among his young naysayers.

"A Goldman Sachs report shows ... that Indonesia will be the world's fourth largest economy in 2050," Prabowo told the congress in Jakarta.

"That's 25 years from now, and so I would be 98 years old then, if God is willing. ... Indonesia would surpass Germany, Japan, the UK, and even France. So why are you talking about a 'dark Indonesia'?,"  Prabowo remarked to which the audience laughed.

Prabowo was making a reference to the projections released by the world's second-largest investment bank Goldman Sachs in late 2022. According to the report, China will dethrone the US as the world's biggest economy in 2050 with Washington falling to second place. At third place is India, which will eventually switch places with the US in the 2075 projections. Both China and Indonesia will maintain their positions in 2075. Germany is set to be in the top 5 in 2050 before Nigeria overtakes Berlin about two decades later.

Prabowo has set an ambitious goal of recording an 8 percent annual growth by the end of his term in 2029. Indonesia's economy had expanded by 5.03 percent year-on-year (yoy) in 2024.

To catapult the country's growth, Prabowo is now banking on his newly minted Danantara sovereign wealth fund.

Danantara will consolidate the assets of Indonesia's government-run businesses and manage their dividends. It will eventually hold over $900 billion in assets under management. Indonesia is using the money saved from Prabowo's budget cuts to give Danantara its initial investment cash. The state-run superholding will start by investing $20 billion in high-impact projects such as nickel processing and food production, to name a few.

Nothing Wrong with a Giant Cabinet

Prabowo also took the chance to once again defend his decision to form a giant cabinet. In late October, Prabowo swore in over 100 members of the Merah Putih ("Red and White") cabinet, comprising 48 ministers, 5 minister-level senior officials, and 59 vice ministers. He had even split some ministries into two, further expanding his cabinet makeup.

"People are saying that we have a huge cabinet. ... What's wrong with having a [huge cabinet] full of incredible people? ... It is the people who benefit from this," Prabowo said.

The Democratic Party is part of the Advanced Indonesia Coalition, a political alliance that had backed Prabowo's presidential bid in the previous election. In return, Prabowo appointed Democratic Party's incumbent chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono as his chief infrastructure minister.

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