Erick Thohir Visit Chinese Officials: Only 2 Indonesian Companies Are In The Top 500 In The World

BUMN Minister Erick Thohir (Photo: Special)

JAKARTA - State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Minister Erick Thohir had a unique experience when he made an official visit to China this week. During the visit, he admitted to meeting with some officials from the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises of China and local businessmen.

"What intrigued me earlier was when my counterpart said that there were 48 Chinese companies that could penetrate the top 500 large corporations in the world, why is Indonesia only two companies?", he said during a virtual press statement from the Bamboo Curtain Country, Friday, April 2.

Suddenly, this made Erick somewhat confused. He did not expect to receive a statement like that.

"I can't say anything", he said.

Even so, the Mahaka boss was spurred on to improve the performance of Indonesian companies to be able to compete on the global stage.

"I can only say that I will double to four in three years (2024)", he said.

Erick added that the bureaucrats and business actors in China quite appreciated several advances in the management of state-owned corporations in Indonesia.

"They have realized that there have been changes over the past year at the Ministry of State-Owned Corporation. They call it a comprehensive reform, where state-owned companies are now implementing good corporate governance towards transparency and professionalism openly", he explained.

Meanwhile, Minister Erick Thohir's main mission to China this time is to immediately realize the development of the electric vehicle (EV) industry in Indonesia.

"CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology) remains committed to investing $ 5 billion, and what I want to ensure is that the sustainability of this partnership is indeed good and can be accelerated", he said.

In addition to Erick, the Minister of Trade Muhammad Lutfi was also involved in explaining that the government had reached an agreement to triple the scale of economic cooperation worth $ 100 billion from $ 31 billion previously.

"This cooperation is a commitment of the two countries until 2024", said the Trade Minister.

The two bureaucrats were accompanied by Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi as the diplomatic envoy who was overseeing the bilateral agreement between Indonesia and China.