Trade Minister Lutfi Calls World Commodity Trade Needs To Be Reorganized

Minister of Trade, M. Lutfi. (Mary Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi stated that some negative and incidental world events such as the war in Ukraine actually only served as encouragement and warnings.

It is not the main cause of the disruption of commodity trade flows that are causing high inflation in various parts of the world today.

Therefore, according to him, world commodity trade needs to be reorganized. This was conveyed by Lutfi in his speech as one of the speakers at the discussion panel themed "Absorbing Commodity Shocks", at the World Economy Forum event held in Davos, Switzerland.

"Indonesia, under the leadership of President Joko Widodo, since five years ago has stated that world commodity trade needs to be reorganized. Because the current dominant structure and system has more negative impacts than benefits. Especially for people in large developing countries such as Indonesia, Brazil, India. and China," he said in an official statement, Wednesday, May 25

According to Lutfi, what is needed is a change in mentality in viewing world free trade as a locomotive that cannot be separated from non-economic factors.

The concept known as environment, sustainability and governance (ESG) is currently the first and foremost measure for investors to invest their capital.

Furthermore, Lutfi said, the ESG concept is economic development based on environmental care, sustainable development and governance.

"We in Indonesia believe that a full commitment to ESG creates a platform to build a sense of mutual need and trust between all countries in the world," he said.

Lutfi added that Indonesia did not remain silent seeing various obstacles to trade and the world economy.

Indonesia as the largest country in ASEAN with a total population of 600 million people, together with nine other ASEAN countries, are fully committed to eliminating trade barriers between ASEAN countries as ASEAN's real contribution in easing the burden on the world economy today.

According to Lutfi, this was done while the 10 ASEAN countries supported each other in implementing the ESG concept in each country.

"Furthermore, with ASEAN's full commitment in implementing ESG, we hope that the ASEAN economy can be more integrated into the main global supply chain," he said.

In short, said Lutfi, ESG will actually be a catalyst as well as an opportunity for developing countries to become developed countries.

For your information, the WEF annual meeting is the main regular agenda for the Minister of Trade Muhammad Lutfi every year.

On the other hand, Trade Minister Lutfi is a national figure who is most often invited as a speaker at various WEF discussion panels every year.