Aviliani: Danantara Strengthens Synergy Between SOEs

Photo: Bambang Eko Ros/VOI

JAKARTA - Senior Economist of the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) Aviliani responded positively to the launch of the Anagata Nusantara Power Investment Management Agency (BPI Danantara). According to him, the formation of Danantara is expected to have a greater ability to manage dividends, carry out restructuring, and ensure proper investment management with more efficient governance with a focus on achieving long-term economic goals.

Coordinated asset management will affect capital stability, investment expansion, and strengthen the synergy of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN). Moreover, explained Aviliani, our BUMN performance is good. So it should be with efforts to cluster, merge, and hold, to increase public trust in SOEs.

"There are even five SOEs that are included in the world class companies including Bank Mandiri, BNI, and BRI. With strong capital and resilience of Banking SOEs in dealing with crises and even being ready in various state assignments, optimism should be built," said Aviliani in Jakarta, quoted Thursday, February 27.

Bank Mandiri, for example, until the first month of 2025, recorded impressive growth. Bank Mandiri's total credit on a bank only grew by 19.29 percent on an annual basis or year on year (YoY) to Rp1,307.18 trillion. This credit expansion boosted total assets by 15.49 percent YoY to Rp1,923.40 trillion.

In terms of funding, Bank Mandiri recorded Third Party Funds (DPK) increasing by 15.13 percent YoY to Rp1,394.40 trillion. This increase was mainly driven by growth in low-cost funds or current account saving accounts (CASA) of 14.54 percent or an increase of Rp140.31 trillion on an annual basis.

The growth in demand deposits and savings has managed to maintain Bank Mandiri's low-cost fund ratio (CASA Ratio) at the level of 79.28% as of January 2025. This condition shows that Bank Mandiri liquidity is well maintained, supported by solid DPK growth, especially from the increase in low-cost funds.

Furthermore, Aviliani provided a number of other examples of countries that have been successful in managing state assets more optimally, thus having a positive impact on the economy. For example, in terms of total assets for the 2019-2022 period, Malaysia's Khazanah performance grew 29 percent, Temasek grew 10 percent, and Berkshire Hathaway grew 5 percent.

In particular, the success of Temasek, in the last 5 decades its assets has increased 10 times with an annual return of 10-15 percent. The key points of the success of Temasek are the vision of long-term investment, the courage to make decisions quickly and focus on risk mitigation and open, transparent, and strong governance.

The same thing was conveyed by Gadjah Mada University (UGM) economist Eddy Junarsin. Eddy emphasized the importance of transparency, the application of adequate corporate governance and risk management in the management of the Danantara. In addition, this agency must be kept away from political interests. Therefore, all parties from the government to the legislature and judiciary must protect the Danantara, which is expected to be the future of the national economy and improve the welfare of the community.

Previously, at the launch of Danantara, Monday, February 24, 2025, President Prabowo Subianto revealed that Danantara was the consolidation of all Indonesian economic forces under the management of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN). Power means power energy, Anagata means the future, and Nusantara means our country.

"We name the Danantara, Daya Anagata Nusantara, meaning that the energy power of Anagata's future is Nusantara, our country," said President Prabowo.

President Prabowo also explained that Danantara will manage more than US$900 billion in Assets in Managed (AUM), or equivalent to Rp. 14,710 trillion (exchange rate of Rp. 16,345 per US dollar). With these super jumbo funds, Danantara will invest in strategic sectors such as sustainable projects that have a high impact in various sectors, renewable energy, advanced manufacturing, downstream industry, food production, and others. Hopefully, all these projects will contribute to achieving Indonesia's economic growth targets of 8%.

Meanwhile, Head of the Danantara Implementation Agency Rosan Roeslani stated that Danantara would play a role in optimizing BUMN assets and investing in various sectors that had positive, sustainable, and sustainable impacts.

Furthermore, Rosan said that President Prabowo had given directions regarding the principle of governance that must be carried out by Danantara. The message from the President, said Rosan, Danantara must be carried out with correct governance, good governance, prudence, transparency, and full of integrity.

"This is a guideline conveyed by the President directly in us managing BUMN assets and also in us carrying out our investment in the future," said Rosan, who was accompanied by Dony Oskaria as Chief Operating Officer and Pandu Sjahrir as Chief Investment Officer when giving information to the media.