Coordinating Minister Airlangga Supports Corruption Prevention To Increase Investor Confidence

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, expressed his full support for preventing corruption to create a clean business ecosystem and increase investor confidence.

"I fully support corruption prevention activities. This is very important so that the risk of corruption can be reduced both now and in the future", said Coordinating Minister Airlangga in his keynote speech at the webinar "Managing The Risk of Bribery Amidst the Pandemic in the Private Sector", quoted from Antara, Wednesday, September 1.

Coordinating Minister Airlangga said the business ecosystem during the COVID-19 pandemic showed characteristics in the form of a volatile financial climate, a shift in the company's focus to health risk mitigation, and COVID-19 handling, as well as increasing cybersecurity threats. This, he continued, makes the risk of bribery and corruption still to be watched out for.

"It is important for companies to reassess the risks of bribery and corruption and their mitigation", he said.

Airlangga conveyed that in the context of handling the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the government has issued Government Regulation instead of Law Number 1 of 2020 to provide a legal basis for the Government in establishing policies and extraordinary steps in the field of state finance and the financial sector.

In its implementation, the government cooperates with all stakeholders to ensure that all these activities are by the principles of good governance, accountability, and propriety as much as possible for the interests of the people.

"Transparency International in 2020 released several points that companies can follow to maintain integrity within the company", he said.

The first point is to ensure that the company has a good risk assessment framework and is actively applied in assessing the corruption risks that arise due to changes in operating patterns during the pandemic era. Second, the importance of direct involvement of top management.

He further requested that companies take on the role of assisting the government by not providing opportunities for corruption. According to him, the restrictions imposed on the company's activities to reduce the rate of transmission of the virus are also an opportunity for the company to review the company's internal control policies and procedures.

"Various economic recovery efforts really need collaboration from various parties, including from the private sector which must continue to show integrity and good governance to increase investor confidence in the business climate in Indonesia", he said.