When Sri Mulyani Entertained Economic Leader Clinton in Jakarta: Good to See You Again

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani (left) with US economist Joseph Stiglitz (Photo: Instagram @smindrawati)

JAKARTA – The agenda for the ASEAN Summit (Summit) in Jakarta this week has opened a separate space for decision makers to meet colleagues. The Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani was no exception, who again met with fellow economists from the United States.

He is Joseph Stiglitz, one of the senior economic thinkers from Uncle Sam's country. The Minister of Finance is familiar with calling Joseph as Joe. Understandably, almost all of Sri Mulyani's international career was played in the US. Even so with higher education pursued in the United States.

"Good to see you again Joe and welcome to Jakarta," greeted the Minister of Finance warmly as she uploaded on his Instagram account @smindrawati, quoted Friday, September 8.

The Minister of Finance said, Joseph Stiglitz, who is a Nobel Prize winner in Economics, had been chairman of the United States Economic Advisory Council and had been Chief Economist of the World Bank.

"He attended the 43rd ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, at one of the CEO Forum events which presented world-class speakers," she said.

The state treasurer explained that he spent quality time discussing the condition and outlook of the world economy, especially in the US, China and Europe.

It was stated that the economic weakness combined with the challenges of inflation and high interest rates in the long term are believed to threaten world economic growth.

"Geopolitics and global fragmentation and supply chain disruption will increase economic uncertainty," she stressed.

The Minister of Finance admitted that he got a lot of insight from this discussion because Joe has long experience in development and critical views on various issues.

"We last met in Japan at the G7 Finance Ministers' meeting in Japan where Joe delivered a presentation on measuring development progress beyond GDP," said the Minister of Finance.

For information, Joseph Stiglitz was Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors during the Bill Clinton administration during 1995-1997. Apart from that, he also held a strategic chair at the international financial organization World Bank for the period 1997-2000.