ABSTRACT
Having remained a highly open economy during the colonial era, Indonesia was transformed into an almost-closed economy during the 1950s and early 1960s. Since the political change in 1966, described earlier in this volume, Indonesia’s economy has been re-opened with the predictable consequence of steadily rising shares of exports and imports as percentages of GDP. The associated structural change in Indonesia’s economy has been a policy objective of the nation’s move away from import-substitution to an export-oriented development strategy. The changes in Indonesia’s import trade behaviour have therefore been part of a larger picture of policy-led economic transformation.
