STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT. Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan opened trading on the United States Stock Exchange (NYSE) or Wall Street on Wednesday morning, September 21, 2022, local time.
A short video containing the process of opening the trade was uploaded via his Instagram account, @luhut.pandjaitan. He said the experience and opportunity to ring the NYSE bell together with the Indonesian Ambassador to the United States and the delegates was an unforgettable experience.
“Usually those who stand on the podium pressing the bell are company executives or even world-famous celebrities. But this time the opportunity was given to a former soldier who graduated from the Tidar valley who received an extraordinary honor,” Luhut said as quoted from his upload on Instagram, Thursday, September 22, 2022.
Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto met with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd James Austin III and CIA Director William Burns this week in Washington. One of the agenda discussed was the completion of the scheduled purchase of F-15 fighter fighters. Prabowo and Lloyd Austin’s most recent meeting was in June at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore, discussing bilateral defense relations.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati had a number of engagements in the United States, one of which was a meeting with investors from Lazard, Citadel, Lord Abbet, BlackRock, Mackay Shields, HSBC AM, and Van Eck, according to her official Instagram account @smindrawati.
On this occasion, she discussed the success of Indonesia’s economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic and the current challenges, including worldwide financial turbulence and the global food and energy crisis.
Sri Mulyani then met with climate philanthropies, including Bloomberg Philanthropist, Bezos Earth Fund, IKEA, Rockefeller, High Tide Foundation, and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. Minister Sri also highlighted the ‘Energy Transition Mechanism Indonesia’ country platform to address carbon emissions in the energy sector.
In a meeting with the Indonesian diaspora at the Indonesian Consulate General’s Office in New York City, Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan emphasized the importance of strengthening traditional export markets and expanding new markets through various international trade agreements, according to a statement issued on Saturday.
Zulkifli said the United States is Indonesia’s second largest traditional trading partner, adding Indonesia is currently gaining momentum in both strengthening traditional trade and expanding non-traditional markets. He also met with a number of business leaders to explore various potential and challenges to Indonesia-U.S. trade.
Economic Affairs Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto, at the G20 Parliamentary Speakers Summit (P20) meeting on Wednesday, urged developed countries to fulfill their promise to provide $100 billion (around IDR 1,427 trillion) to developing countries to tackle climate change in developing countries.
Indonesian officials have proposed to the G20 a set of possible solutions to a looming global food crisis as geopolitical tensions threaten food and fertilizer supplies worldwide.
At a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Oct 13, Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo said the G20 was committed to guaranteeing continued food production and making it available for cross-border trade.
Syahrul was speaking at the first Joint Finance and Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting (JFAMM), which brought together top officials from G20 countries as part of the G20 forum, which Indonesia is chairing this year.
The minister called on the G20 to increase the production of key food commodities that weighed heavily on inflation, reduce imports through substitution with domestic goods where possible and increase food exports. He said Indonesia was already on track with these policies, which he referred to as a “triple intervention.”
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani attended the Fourth G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ (FMCBG) Meeting welcoming remarks in Washington D.C., United States, on Thursday, Oct 14, 2022.
The Minister predicted that the global situation will remain difficult in 2022 and may extend to 2023, due to the high risk of inflation, slowing economic growth, energy and food insecurity, climate change, and geopolitics that occur simultaneously.
She said the economic crisis cannot be solved by one country alone but requires collective action from the group that comprises 85 percent of the world economy.
Indonesia’s debt to China increased slightly in July 2022, reaching $20.83 billion (IDR311.98 trillion), up from $20.82 billion (IDR311.81 trillion) in June 2022.
China is among Indonesia’s top five lending countries, according Indonesia’s Foreign Debt statistics released by Bank Indonesia in Jakarta. Although Indonesia’s debt to China increased slightly, the country’s total external debt decreased to $400.4 billion in July, down from $403.6 billion the previous month.
At the closing of the 2022 IMF and World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva urged 190 member countries to prepare for the impending “severe storm” of the global economic crisis. The IMF deemed that the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was followed by the Russo-Ukrainian War, had a significant impact on global trade activity and financial market turbulence.
Economic Affairs Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto met with U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Sung Y. Kim on Wednesday to discuss improving bilateral relations between the two countries. The minister highlighted the U.S. Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) initiative launched in June 2021 at the UK G7 Summit. The United States plans to allocate funding of $600 billion for PGII.
