Visit Sarinah With Minister Of SOEs And Menparekraf, IMF Officials Praise Jakarta: This City Has An Extraordinary Improvement

SOE Minister Erick Thohir (left) with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva (center) and Tourism Minister Sandiaga Uno (right) at Sarinah mall. (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva said she was impressed by the transformation of development that took place in Jakarta. Georgieva has just returned to visit the capital city of the Republic of Indonesia, after two decades.

"Jakarta has changed a lot. The city has had tremendous improvements. Now we can see the infrastructure of the Metropolitan City, which didn't exist before," she said while visiting the Sarinah mall with SOE Minister Erick Thohir and Tourism Minister Sandiaga Uno, quoted by Antara, Sunday 17 July.

Georgieva praised the splendor of the Sarinah mall which showcased a variety of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) products. According to her, the Indonesian people should be proud of the extraordinary values that Indonesian culture brings to the world.

IMF officials visited Indonesia to attend a meeting with G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, one of the topics discussed at the meeting regarding the challenges of the world economy.

Georgieva said when the world economy was in a dismal condition, Indonesia actually excelled by recording economic growth of above 5 percent and inflation of only 4 percent, much lower than other countries in the world. Moreover, Indonesia continues to develop and strengthen the capabilities of MSME actors who are the driving force of the domestic economy.

In addition to attending the G20 meeting, Georgieva also met with President Joko Widodo to talk about strategies to strengthen Indonesia's economy.

"We discussed good policies that make Indonesia stronger, and how to continue to bring Indonesia into dynamism and improve people's lives in this great country," said Georgieva.

SOE Minister Erick Thohir said he was pleased with the visit of IMF officials who praised Indonesia. According to him, President Joko Widodo's leadership is on the right track and asks the public to work together to stop blaming each other so that Indonesia can progress.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uni said that the IMF's agenda for coming to Indonesia now is different from 25 years ago, where Indonesia was facing a really concerning situation and the IMF was present with several policy programs.

"If we compare it with now, they did not come with a policy program, they just wanted to learn about what we have done," concluded Sandiaga.