Indonesia’s new finance minister faces an uphill struggle to restore investor confidence after the shock resignation of his respected predecessor, analysts said yesterday.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appointed PT Bank Mandiri chief Agus Martowardojo late on Wednesday to replace independent economist Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who resigned on May 4 for a top job at the World Bank.
Yudhoyono said Martowardojo — another independent technocrat — had the “capacity and integrity” required to handle Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, which is forecast to grow 5.5 percent this year.
Indrawati’s resignation on May 4 sent the Jakarta stock exchange into a tailspin as investors fretted over the pace of long-term reform to tackle rampant corruption.
The 47-year-old had won broad praise for her uncompromising efforts to clean up the corrupt tax and customs offices — a task deemed vital for economic growth but which put her at odds with powerful vested interests.
Analysts said only time would tell whether Martowardojo, a 54-year-old who was nominated for central bank governor in 2008, had the spine to take on the business and political forces that effectively ousted Indrawati.
“With a track record of leading change at Indonesia’s largest bank, he can be expected to push for improved efficiency and better performance in the civil service,” the Jakarta Globe said in an editorial. “More important, he can be relied on to continue to crack down on corruption within the finance ministry and beyond.”
“But his critics will argue that he is a political novice and has not had many dealings with the House of Representatives. On this front he will have a steep learning curve and will have to adjust to political currents quickly,” it said.
Moody’s analyst Aninda Mitra said Martowardojo was “well-regarded by the market” and his appointment was a “supportive development in terms of policy continuity.”
“He’s seen as relatively clean and is well respected. He’s also well regarded by the president,” he said in an analysis report.
Indrawati’s departure for the No. 2 job at the World Bank, starting on June 1, followed months of political attacks from Yudhoyono’s coalition partners over a controversial bank bailout.
It is unclear whether she walked or was pushed from office as part of a deal between Yudhoyono and Golkar party chief Aburizal Bakrie, a business tycoon and coalition playmaker who led the attacks on Indrawati over the bank rescue.
Indrawati stood up to Bakrie by refusing to shield a Bakrie-linked coal company from a stock market sell-off in 2008. She also clashed with him over hundreds of millions of dollars in allegedly unpaid company taxes.
READINESS: According to a survey of 2,000 people, 86 percent of Swedes believe the country is worth defending in the event of a military attack Swedes are stocking up on food items in case of war, as more conflict in Europe no longer feels like a distant possibility, and authorities encourage measures to boost readiness. At a civil preparedness fair in southwest Stockholm, 71-year-old Sirkka Petrykowska said that she is taking the prospect of hostilities seriously and preparing as much as she can. “I have bought a camping stove. I have taken a course on preservation in an old-fashioned way, where you can preserve vegetables, meat and fruit that lasts for 30 years without a refrigerator,” Petrykowska said. “I’ve set aside blankets for warmth, I
FRUSTRATIONS: One in seven youths in China and Indonesia are unemployed, and many in the region are stuck in low-productivity jobs, the World Bank said Young people across Asia are struggling to find good jobs, with many stuck in low-productivity work that the World Bank said could strain social stability as frustrations fuel a global wave of youth-led protests. The bank highlighted a persistent gap between younger and more experienced workers across several Asian economies in a regional economic update released yesterday, noting that one in seven young people in China and Indonesia are unemployed. The share of people now vulnerable to falling into poverty is now larger than the middle class in most countries, it said. “The employment rate is generally high, but the young struggle to
ENERGY SHIFT: A report by Ember suggests it is possible for the world to wean off polluting sources of power, such as coal and gas, even as demand for electricity surges Worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year, and for the first time on record, renewable energies combined generated more power than coal, a new analysis said. Global solar generation grew by a record 31 percent in the first half of the year, while wind generation grew 7.7 percent, according to the report by the energy think tank Ember, which was released after midnight yesterday. Solar and wind generation combined grew by more than 400 terawatt hours, which was more than the increase in overall global demand during the same period, it said. The findings suggest it is
‘ARMED CONFLICT’: At least 21 people have died in such US attacks, while experts say the summary killings are illegal even if they target confirmed narcotics traffickers US forces on Friday carried out a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat off the coast of Venezuela, killing four people, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said. The latest strike, which Hegseth announced in a post on X, brings the number of such US attacks to at least four, leaving at least 21 people dead. An accompanying video shared by Hegseth showed a boat speeding across the waves before being engulfed in smoke and flames. “Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed,” the Pentagon chief wrote. He said the strike “was conducted in international waters just off the
RSS