 Jakarta is the capital city The territory of the Republic of Indonesia stretches from 6º 08' north latitude to 11º 15' south latitude, and from 94º 45' to 141º 05' east longitude. The Indonesian sea area is four times greater than its land area, which is about 1.9 million sq. km. The sea area is about 7.9 million sq. km (including an exclusive economic zone) and constitutes about 81% of the total area of the country.
Indonesia has about 500 tribes and correspondingly, it has about 500 languages and dialects spoken in the archipelago. The population in Indonesia has now reach the fourth most populated country in the world after China, India, and the United States of America. In 2000, population of Indonesia is 206,264,595.
Indonesia is located in tropical area with an average relative humidity between 70% and 90%. The minimum humidity is 73% and maximum is 87%. The climate changes every six months. The dry season (June to September) is influenced by the Australian continental air masses; while the rainy season (December to March) is the result of the Asian and Pacific Ocean air masses. The transitional periods between the two seasons are April to May and October to November.
Agriculture is the key sector in the Indonesian economy since the majority of the people depends their livelihood in this sector. The share of workforce and GDP from this sector to the national figure shows declining trend. The workforce in agricultural sector in 1968 is 61% from total workforce, and it declines to 45% in 1998. While the share of GDP from agriculture sector is 42% in 1968 and it declines to 15% in 1996.
Some indicators of macroeconomic development are as follows1:
- Gross domestic product in 2000 rose by 4.9 % compared to the previous year
- In the period January-December 2000, exports and imports rose respectively by 27.6% and 31.9%. The surplus on the balance of trade is US $25.04 billion.
- The rate of inflation tended to increase to 11.5 % in 2001.
The major food crops are rice and secondary crops, especially corn, cassava, soybean and groundnuts, where in 2001, its production in million tons were 49.6; 9.2; 16.6; 0.8; and 0.7 respectively. Other important food crops are fruits and vegetables where their production achieved 8.1 and 10.4 million tons respectively. Estate crops play an important role in Agricultural Sector. The productions of estate crops, in million tons were palm oil 6.7; sugar cane 1.6; coffee 0.5 and cocoa 0.4 tons respectively. Beside the crops, livestock and fisheries products are also increasing, among others meats 1.4 million tons, eggs 1.1 and fish 6.0 million tons respectively. Despite the attempts to diversify agricultural production, more than half of its GDP consists of food crops, and more than 60% of major food crops are produced in Java.
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