Sri Mulyani: Geopolitical Tensions Encourage Countries To Be More Inward Looking

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani (Photo; Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that the world is now in an era marked by increasing economic fragmentation, changing perspectives in view of the process of international relations, trade, and more extreme revival of nationalism which sees other countries as enemies instead of friends.

The global economy has developed into a very complex landscape. Geopolitical tensions in the last five years have prompted countries to become more award looking," Sri Mulyani explained in her official statement, Wednesday, December 6.

According to Sri Mulyani, trade war is a form of trade and investment barriers that are happening globally, creating supply chain disruptions and eroding free trade principles that are believed to be mutually beneficial.

Furthermore, Sri Mulyani stated that at the same time, the world is also faced with technological nationalism challenges, declining trust in relations between countries, and friction between national interests against (versus) global interests.

The segregation is increasingly massive based on geography, sovereignty, ethnicity, race, religion, and is now also divided by artificial intelligence, as everyone is separated by the categorizations made by AI.

"We need to look back at the theories and textbooks we study, and match them with the current situation, so that we can understand and have a wider point of view of the changing times," he added.

The country's financial treasurer said Indonesia was in a very good position amidst global economic uncertainty such as geopolitical and global fragmentation.

Sri Mulyani called this good condition because not only because of Indonesia's active free international political principles, but also blessed with natural resources that play a very important role in geopolitical and geostrategic trends.

And supported by stable economic growth and resilience that has proven resilient in the face of crisis.

Our economy has continued to grow by about 5 percent in the last eight quarters. We also continue to focus on the most important things in building the right and strong foundation for Indonesia to continue its journey to become a higher income country," he explained.

Sri Mulyani also said that fiscal policy has proven to be effective in playing an important role as a shock absorber, maintaining national stability while maintaining solid economic growth.

The Indonesian government is also committed to carrying out structural reforms to increase competitiveness at the world level through infrastructure development, improving the quality of human resources, and strengthening institutions.

In the international economic cooperation forum, Indonesia proactively contributes to the determination of the global agenda and solving global problems.

During the G20 Presidency last year and this year's ASEAN Chairmanship, Indonesia's leadership played an important role in 12 of its 14 driving keys such as the formation of a Pandemic Fund, Energy Transition Mechanism, ASEAN Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance, and ASEAN Local Currency Transaction Framework.

"We have done a lot, but I hope we can continue to criticize ourselves, observe our own achievements, and lack of achievements so that we can continue to develop and make progress," explained Sri Mulyani.

Furthermore, Sri Mulyani said that Indonesia continues its journey to become a high income country.

"This is not a smooth and easy journey, no one promises that becoming a high-income country will be easy, but this is something that we must continue to support with good policies and institutions", he said.