The World of Print is Flat Too! - Part Trois: Indonesia
If I were to ask you, “what is the fourth most populous nation after China, India and the USA?” you might say Brazil or Russia or Germany, but how many of you would say “Indonesia”? Well, with 225 million people, Indonesia is the fourth largest nation in terms of population.
If I were to ask you, “what are the 10 fastest growing print markets in the world”? Most everyone would include the BRIC nations, Brazil, Russia, India and China, but would you pick Indonesia as no. 7 with a growth rate expected to be 56.6% over the 2006-2011 timeframe? Indonesia is growing even faster than Brazil, the famous “B” in the BRIC countries. Perhaps we’ll have to start re-spelling BRIC as BRIIC going forward! Today Indonesia is a $6 billion print-ing market and it’s expected to grow to well over $9.5 bil-lion by 2011. This is a market that savvy NPES members cannot afford to overlook. Sales of printing equipment, consumables, ink and paper are expected to approach $5 billion by 2011.
As with any developing market, however, there are risks. There are some linger-ing ethnic and regional ten-sions despite the resolution of the East Timor issue and the end of the Suharto regime. The country was also affected by the tsunami that hit the Asian region in December 2004. Despite this, take a good close look at Indonesia as a potential market for your products as you explore the developing parts of Asia. For more infor-mation on Indonesia and any of the top 50 country markets for print, consult the recently released PRIMIR study, “The Worldwide Market for Print”.
About Indonesia
Overview: Indonesia is an equatorial country with an area of 2 million square kilometers (736,000 square miles), consisting of more than 17,000 islands; 6,000 are inhabited; 1,000 of which are permanently settled.
The president is the head of government and is assisted by a cabinet that he appoints. The president and the vice president were elected by popular vote for the first time on September 20, 2004. While the President is the executive head, the Legislature consists of a 550-member House of Representatives (DPR) elected for a five-year term.
Demographic Trends: Indonesia has numerous related but distinct cultural and linguistic groups, many of which are ethnically Malay. Bahasa Indonesia (a form of Malay) is the national language; English is the most widely spoken foreign language. Education is compulsory for children through grade nine.
Although about 92% of eligible children are enrolled in primary school, a much smaller percentage attends full time. About 44% of secondary school-age children attend junior high school, and some others in this age group attend vocational schools.
Religious freedom is guaranteed by the constitution. The five religions recognized by the state are Islam (87%), Protestantism (6%), Catholicism (3%), Buddhism (2%), and Hinduism (1%). Hinduism, however, is the majority religion on the resort island of Bali with over 90% of the population being Hindus.
