Jakarta – The food and beverage sector will be one of the business sectors to directly benefit from the general elections, with producers expecting the five-yearly event to generate Rp 3 trillion (US$252 million) to Rp 5 trillion in additional sales revenues.
Thomas Darmawan, the Indonesian Food and Beverage Association (GAPMMI) chairman, said on Tuesday the figures represented around 0.2 percent to 0.4 percent of this year's total sales, and were based on the experience of the last election.
"Overall, the food and beverages industry will likely rise by 10 to 12 percent this year as whether it is a crisis or not, people will still buy the commodities for their basic needs, not to mention the boost from the elections," Thomas told a seminar on the economic impact of elections.
In his presentation, Thomas said that food and beverage consumption in the domestic market was around US$150 billion, while exports were around $2 billion.
Economists have said elections, where political parties and their candidates spend big to attract voters, are similar to a stimulus to the economy which has been hit hard by the global economic downturn.
While a bigger part of campaign funds would be spent on promotional campaigns, including media advertisements, sales of certain products such as food and beverages would get a boost from the event.
University of Indonesia economist Faisal Basri said the elections will help many industries during the economic crisis.
"The spending of 38 national political parties, six local parties and tens of thousands of legislative candidates for votes in the election will surely contribute some 0.2 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) on consumption."
Indonesia recorded a GDP of close to Rp 5,000 trillion last year.
The story however is not the same for some other business sectors, whose representatives were also present at the seminar.
"The election will have no impact on the motorcycles industry. This is based on our research in the last four election years – 1992, 1997, 1999 and 2004," Indonesian Motorcycle Industry Association (AISI) head Gunadi Sindhuwinata said in his presentation.
"The research shows although people might use motorcycles and other vehicles for campaigning purposes, buyers remain at the same rate as in the previous months."
The elections will even result in negative impacts on the oil and gas sector especially downstream, according to analyst Kurtubi.
"The government will do their best to provide sufficient fuel during elections, so there will be more imports of fuel. This may cause a negative impact. For example, we are now getting an over-supply of diesel due to imports," he added. (hdt)