Find New Sources Of Growth Amid Global Uncertainty, Indonesia Implements Three Exit Strategy

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government, represented by the Deputy Minister of Finance (Wamenkeu) Suahasil Nazara, had the opportunity to lead the Indonesian delegation at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting held in Bangkok, Thailand this week.

In his statement, Suahasil emphasized that Indonesia is pushing for a joint initiative to update the world economy amidst current global uncertainty.

"For Indonesia, it is important to find new sources of growth and continue structural reforms, including infrastructure development," he said in a written statement quoted on Sunday, October 23.

According to Suahasil, RI is now carrying out three exit strategies, namely how the APBN can return to the deficit level before the pandemic.

Then, how can the central bank get liquidity from outside the system after a large placement during the pandemic period, and how to restore the prudential supervisory policy which is usually carried out relaxation during the pandemic.

"The three exit strategies need to be coordinated, including support from development partners, and well communicated, and need to maintain discussions with other countries about adequate exit strategies," he said.

Suahasil added, Indonesia expressed its support for Thailand's priority agenda for sustainable financing.

"Indonesia has just updated the National Determined Contribution (NDC) to 31.8 percent with domestic resources and 43.2 percent with international support," he said.

Sri Mulyani's deputy also said that Indonesia would continue its commitment to reduce net zero emissions by 2060 or earlier.

"We hope that all of this can be achieved by collaborating with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through the establishment of an Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM) country platform and plans to implement new tax regulations that include a carbon tax," he stressed.

On the same occasion, Thailand's Minister of Finance Arkhom Termpittayapaisith as the host stated that his party carried the theme Promoting Digitalization, Achieving Sustainability in the chairmanship of APEC this year.

"It is important for APEC to reach a balance between economic growth and preserve the environment, highlighting that economic digitization and sustainable development will be the key to achieving common prosperity goals," he said.

"We all see high inflation, geopolitical fragmentation, volatility in energy and food prices, supply chain disruptions, weak growth projections, tightening financial conditions, risk of climate change," he added.

For this reason, Arkhom initiated two priority agendas for financial channels, namely sustainable financing and the digital economy.

Digitalization has proven to be the main driver for growth, especially in an increasing global environment. However, this growth should not sacrifice a significantly deteriorating environment. Therefore, sustainable development must be a global agenda, including in the APEC region," he said.