Asked About The Strong State Budget Recipe, Sri Mulyani Opens This Secret To The Korean Public

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani (second from the left) in a discussion forum in Incheon, South Korea (Photo: Capture the screen of the ADB digital channel)

JAKARTA The working visit of the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani to Incheon, South Korea was marked by being a resource person on the Seminar Government's agenda: Policies to Support Asia's Rebound.

The Minister of Finance explained that he was given the opportunity to explain the role of multilateralism in recovery in Asia. It was stated that the interconnected world made multilateralism the best way for us to rise and recover from the crisis.

"In order for multilateralism to be effective, we must be able to show good governance and build public trust. So that the spirit of cooperation in multilateral and regional forums like what we did at the G20, ADB, ASEAN, ASEAN+3, and other multilateral forums becomes the strongest capital to face various global turmoil," he said when delivering a written statement, Thursday, May 4.

According to the Minister of Finance, another thing that was also asked was how to reduce the inequality that is increasingly visible in the Asian region. The state treasurer then shared his experiences in terms of Indonesian fiscal policy.

He said, there are many fiscal policy instruments to overcome inequality, both in terms of acceptance and spending.

In terms of revenue, tax policies must be designed quite progressive without reducing motivation to earn income. Meanwhile, in terms of spending, there is a lot of support that we can provide both for reducing poverty, breaking poverty between generations, education, health, and others," he said.

The Minister of Finance said that Indonesia also used additional revenue from the commodity boom to invest in the outermost, poorest, remote areas and also for vulnerable groups such as women and children.

Finally, I say that the key to maintaining Asian recovery after the pandemic is productivity. We in Asia must invest more to increase productivity which is the most sustainable source of growth. Both investment for education, labor, macro policy, or infrastructure that is urgently needed to increase people's movement and productivity," he stressed.