Kalla: RI Will Preserve Ties with IMF, ADB, World Bank
24 April 2015 09:16 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Vice President Jusuf Kalla has asserted that the government would continue its cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB)—in what appears to be an attempt to dismiss allegations that Indonesia would sever ties with the three international creditors.
“The president only said not to rely on those three banks,” he said after bilateral talks with a number of nations in the Asian-African summit in Jakarta on Thursday.
Kalla made the comment in light of President Jokowi’s Wednesday remarks that resolving economic puzzle through cooperation with the three institutions was outdated means. Many have perceived the presidential speech meant the country would incline to the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) initiated by China and cut off ties with the World Bank, the IMF and the ADB.
Yuri O. Thamrin, the director general for Asia-Africa of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, said infrastructure development in the Asian-African region reached US$8 trillion—a figure impossible to cover by either the World Bank, the IMF or the ADB, which only earmarked hundreds of millions of US dollars per year, thus making the AIIB the only feasible solution left.
Bank Indonesia recorded the nation’s foreign debts until February 2015 reached US$298.9 billion, of which US$30.14 billion stemmed from debts from other countries, US$23.3 billion from international organizations, US$5.48 from the central bank’s foreign currency debts, US$2.8 billion from the IMF, US$233 million from creditor countries and US$2.46 billion from other sources.
Firmanzah, a professor with the Economy and Business Faculty of the University of Indonesia, meanwhile, has appealed to President Joko Widodo not to think negatively about the three international creditors, saying the IMF was the only foundation assisting the country in the 1998 economic crisis.
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