Yudhoyono is set to win a second term, providing the 59- year-old former general with a mandate to double spending on roads and power to US$140 billion by 2014 and pull 33 million people out of poverty. Southeast Asia’s largest economy may expand as much as 4 percent this year, von Amsberg said.

Faster growth “put Indonesia in an incredibly exciting position to come out as a winner from this global turmoil,” von Amsberg said in an interview Thursday in

Jakarta. “It shows that Indonesia is a positive outlier in the world right now.”

Indonesia’s move to increase deposit insurance, boost coordination with the central bank and strengthen bank supervision helped the nation largely avoid the worldwide credit crisis, von Amsberg said.

Asia’s third-most populated country has also skirted recession, unlike many of its neighbors that rely more on exports. Declining interest rates helped boost consumption, which accounts for more than 60 percent of Indonesia’s gross domestic product.

‘Time to accelerate’

The $433 billion economy expanded 4.4 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, compared with a 6.2 percent contraction for Malaysia and Thailand’s 7.1 percent slump. Indonesia’s central bank has cut its benchmark interest rate by 2.75 percentage points since December.

“To guard growth, spending must be increased,” said Elvyn G. Masassya, investment director at PT Jaminan Sosial Tenaga Kerja, Indonesia’s biggest pension fund manager. “This is a time for us to accelerate.”

Masassya, who manages about $6.9 billion in assets, expects Indonesia’s benchmark stock index to extend its gain by 20 percent as Yudhoyono continues policies to boost growth after his re-election victory.

Boosting investment to fix Indonesia’s roads, ports and power plants needs to be among Yudhoyono’s top priorities, according to nine of 11 chief executive officers contacted in the past month by Bloomberg News. He also needs to improve transparency in the legal system and reduce corruption to attract global investors, the survey found.

“If the new government shows decisiveness in overcoming some bottlenecks, that will be a huge statement,” von Amsberg said.

Source: Bloomberg