Indonesia’s stunting issue

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Hello readers,

While we’ve often talked about Indonesia’s impending boom this decade, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is facing a crisis: childhood stunting. The issue – if unresolved – could slow down the country’s overall economic growth.

Scroll down if you fancy a short summary.

But first, here are your quick bytes for the day:

1️⃣ Jack Ma has always been seen as the leader of the pack in China, so his move for Ant Group to go public has prompted some to follow suit. For one, Waterdrop, the insurance tech startup backed by Tencent, is preparing for an IPO with a US$4 billion valuation. Tesla competitor WM Motor is also considering an IPO in Shanghai.

2️⃣ Good news: A South Korean pharmaceutical company backed by Bill Gates may have 200 million coronavirus vaccine kits ready by next June. Singapore, too, is in the race to produce a vaccine, and it looks to be on track with testing on humans to commence this week.

3️⃣ The Indian court has summoned Jack Ma after an ex-employee of UCWeb – the mobile internet company that Alibaba acquired in 2014 – alleged that the company had censored content and posted false news.

4️⃣ Working from home ain’t going too well in Japan: Bureaucrats from different ministries still aren’t able to hold teleconferences together, and most of their administrative work can’t be done online. Perhaps the solution is consolidating co-living and co-working spaces? In this subscriber-only piece, we explore what happens when remote working becomes the new normal.

5️⃣ Your next iPhone could just be assembled in India as Apple slowly aims to scale up its production efforts in the country.

6️⃣ Last quarter, India’s top premium smartphone brand was Oneplus, which stole the spot from Samsung. The country’s budget phone segment is also a competitive one, with Xiaomi, Vivo, Samsung and more in the mix. One young contender in particular is rising very quickly.

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The childhood stunting issue in Indonesia

Indonesia has the world’s fourth-largest population. But the nation also ranks high in another aspect: its childhood stunting rates.

• Among the highest in the world: In 2019, nearly 8 million children under the age of five were stunted in Indonesia.
• Children’s stunted growth – often stemming from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation – can lead to a loss of around US$20 billion for the country’s gross domestic income. That’s equivalent to 13.8% of Indonesia’s income per year. This may just hold back the nation’s goal to reach a gross domestic product of US$7.3 trillion by 2045.
• It’s not just monetary: Childhood stunting also means that the next generation of Indonesians would only be 53% as productive as they would have been. That could mean bad news for the entrepreneurs and the tech companies setting up offices there.
• Government intervention to the rescue: The government launched a program which succeeded in reducing stunting levels by 3.1% – from 30.8% in 2018 to 27.7% in 2019 – but it’s still far from the goal of below 20%.

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Another Covid-19 casualty: An Indonesian fashion startup

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