Jakarta. The Indonesian Employers’ Association or Apindo said Tuesday that President Prabowo Subianto had done a pretty good job in his 100 days in office, citing that he had been “consistent” in delivering his campaign promises so far.

Prabowo officially marked 100 days in office after officially rising to power last October. When he ran for president, Prabowo pledged that he would feed Indonesian school children government-aided nutritious meals to bring down the national stunting rate. He vowed to deepen his predecessor Joko “Jokowi” Jokowi’s resource nationalism, which translates into the massive development of Indonesian downstream industries. The retired army general also promised that he would make sure that Indonesian farmers could live better lives. 

According to Apindo’s chairwoman Shinta Kamdani, Prabowo had done well in keeping his words. However, the businesswoman admitted that it might be too soon to judge Prabowo’s performance, considering how Indonesia was still trying to get used to the much larger cabinet makeup.

“We believe that the Prabowo government did pretty well in their first 100 days, even though this period is synonymous with political consolidation. The country is still trying to navigate the new government structure,” Shinta said on Investor Daily Talk.

“We have to give credit to Prabowo who has been consistent in delivering his campaign promises, be it the free nutritious meal program and debt write-offs for farmers. He has also carried on Jokowi’s flagship economic policies, including the downstream industry development, as promised,” she added.

Shinta said that the consistency could give a “positive signal” for businesses both at home and abroad that the Prabowo government “does not only make promises”. 

“It makes a nice building block of better business certainty in the country,” Shinta remarked.

Shinta commented on the 80.9 percent approval rating that the Prabowo government got on the 100-day scorecard survey released by Litbang Kompas. The entrepreneur also attributed the high scores to Prabowo’s populist policies. She said: “Public support is key to making the necessary structural reforms, … especially if Prabowo wants to record that annual 8-percent economic growth that he has always wanted.”

When Prabowo first assumed power, the longtime presidential hopeful announced the giant Merah Putih or Red and White Cabinet comprising 48 ministers, 5 non-ministry senior officials, and 59 vice ministers. As expected, a large part of the government’s focus in the first few months went into making sure that the free meal program would be problem-free.

The government finally launched the free meal drive early this month, which aimed to feed nearly 83 million students and expectant mothers by 2029. The program had fed at least 650,000 kids in 31 provinces as of Jan. 22. The ambitious rollout, however, also had its share of problems. A number of catering businesses had fallen victim to frauds. About 40 elementary school students in Sidoarjo caught food poisoning, although it did not take long before they fully recovered. The government also promised to tighten food safety policies after the incident. Indonesia has set aside Rp 71 trillion ($4.4 billion) in state funds for the free meal program for 2025 alone. The National Nutrition Agency, which is in charge of overseeing the program, recently proposed a budget increase to Rp 100 trillion.

Just weeks after his swearing-in, Prabowo inked a regulation to write off approximately Rp 10 trillion in bad debts owned by farmers, fisherman, as well as small business owners. Earlier this month, Prabowo also formed a special task force aimed to promote Indonesia’s downstream industry development, which could culminate into the domestic production of higher valued goods. Prabowo has picked Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia to lead the task force.

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