Ex-trade minister upbeat about Indonesia's future
While Indonesian economic expansion for next year is lower than prior estimations and targets set by the central bank and President Joko Widodo, chief of Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Board Thomas Lembong has urged investors to look at the improvin
Lembong, who was trade minister until the Cabinet reshuffle in July, is now chief of the Investment Coordinating Board. He was speaking in a session with Bloomberg on the second day of the Singapore Summit, attended by global political and business leaders, held at the Shangri-La Hotel Saturday.
Indonesian Finance Minister Mulyani Indrawati said earlier this month that the economy would expand by 5.1 per cent next year, lower than the 5.3 per cent estimate of the central bank. The number is also lower than the 7 per cent growth target set by Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
But Lembong insisted that the "numbers do not tell the whole story". He said that while Indonesia has had three years of slowing economic growth, investors should look at "the trend, not the snapshot".
"There are enough statistics that indicate that we are speeding up... The weaker exchange rate and deregulation reforms are facilitating this shift towards a more investment-led recovery," he added.
But he cautioned that Indonesia's reform process will not be in a straight line and that it will be "three steps forward, two steps back".
Lembong maintained that Indonesia is on the right path, as it is "now starting to tackle the mindset in bureaucracy". He said that Indonesia was "5 to 10 per cent" in the reform process, and told investors to stay tuned.
"We are now working on the next batch of reforms... they are even more ambitious than everything that we've seen today," he declared.
