RI Is Increasingly Confident That The Establishment Of The FIF Fund Will Receive Chinese Support Ahead Of Its Release In September

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

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani is known to have just held a meeting with Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun through a virtual channel. In the meeting agenda, the two state treasurers were mentioned to discuss the G20 strategic issues related to the formation of the Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF).

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani said that the Indonesian G20 Presidency was committed to immediately realizing FIF as a health management (pandemic) mechanism under the management of the World Bank. In addition, WHO was also asked to be involved as a technical advisor in the field.

"The Indonesian G20 presidency has pushed for the formation of the FIF with the World Bank and WHO, which will play an important role in this mechanism," he said in a press statement on Wednesday, July 13.

According to Sri Mulyani, RI hopes that this initiative can get support from China as one of the members of the G20.

"Therefore, we expect China's support for FIF so that the world can be better prepared to face pandemic situations in the future," he said.

Like a tit for tat, Minister of Finance Liu Kun stated that he would continue to encourage Indonesia to make the best contribution to solving world problems.

"In order to maintain human health and life, and to support Indonesia's G20 Presidency, China is ready to support the establishment of the FIF for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPR) at the World Bank," he said.

Minister of Finance Liu Kun added that the pandemic conditions made the need for funds for global development to be realized immediately.

"We will actively consider contributing to the FIF and study it further," he stressed.

Meanwhile, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani hopes that at the next meeting between heads of state, President Xi Jinping can declare China's official support for the formation of the FIF.

Then, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani and Minister of Finance Liu Kun agreed that the issue of food security is an important issue to discuss because it has a significant impact on the world, especially in relation to rising food prices on subsidies and social protection policies, as well as controlling inflation in terms of monetary policy.

The two also agreed to cooperate and strengthen bilateral relations in the fields of investment and trade, especially in strategic sectors such as infrastructure.

For information, the discourse on the formation of the Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) first emerged at the G20 High Level Independent Panel (HLIP) in 2021.

This idea was then explored by the finance ministers and health ministers under the auspices of the Italian G20 Presidency, and the culmination was later outlined in the Rome Declaration of the G20 Leaders.

Through the Declaration, the G20 leaders agreed to form a Joint Finance and Health Task Force (JFHTF) which was co-chaired by Indonesia and Italy.

To date, the amount of funds collected has reached 1 billion US dollars with Indonesia's contribution of 50 million US dollars.

Other committed contributions came from the United States, the European Union Commission, Germany, Indonesia, Singapore and the United Kingdom, as well as donations from philanthropic organizations, the Wellcome Trust and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. FIF itself is expected to be officially launched and operational in September 2022.