Jokowi's Economic Policies Side With China, Analyst Says  

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Director  of the Institute for Economics and Development, Enny Sri Hartati warned President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo’s stance that refused to receive aids from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or from the World Bank because this move, she said, would give the impression as if Indonesia would be closer to China in economic sectors.

"There seems to be a hidden agenda here. It’s like what happened during President Soekarno’s administration,” Enny said on Monday, 24 April 2015.

Jokowi’s statement was revealed in his remarks at the opening of the 60^th Commemoration of the Asian African Conference.

Not long afterwards, Jokowi and Chinese Prime Minister Xi Jinping signed an agreement worth US$150 bilion.

Enny also said that the move was understandable because China is one of the largest global economies and despite the slowdown, China’s economic growth has been relatively higher than that of other countries.

However, a bilateral cooperation, Enny said, needs a transparency because so far, it has been useful to create a healthy investment climate, especially in the sectors that are closely linked with global trade.

Enny added that so far, cooperation with developed countries so far have not been based on an equal ground, with Indonesia only becoming a market from products manufactured by China.

Although Indonesia needs China to finance infrastructure development, Enny said, Jokowi must continue to uphold the equality principle.

"Don’t let them end up exploiting us,” she said.

Previously, Vice President Jusuf Kalla denied that President Joko Widodo’s statement indicated that Indonesian intended to eliminate dependency to those international institutions and it became a sign of Indonesia’s interest to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which was founded by China.

According to Kalla, the President only wanted to give an alternative funding to fund infrastructure development.

"The President only said that we must not depend on those three institutions," Kalla said after a bilateral meeting with several world leaders at the 60^th Commemoration of the Asian African Conference in Jakarta.

JK also dismissed the speculation that Jokowi would cut off Indonesia’s relations with the World Bank, the Indonesian Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Asian Development Bank  (ADB).

Kalla also ensured that Indonesia’s relations with those three international institutions would continue to be maintained.

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