TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government denied a statement from The Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) that the government debts, which mostly comes from the issuance of government securities (SBN), is controlled by foreign parties. The Finance Ministry said that government debt is still dominated by domestic investors.

"That's not true. It is still dominated by Indonesian investors," the ministry's Director General of Financing and Risk Management Scenaider Clasein Hasudungan Siahaan told Tempo on Monday March 26.

According to Scenaider, some 60 percent of the government debt is dominated by domestic investors, and foreigners account for the rest.

Scenaider also protested the term "colonized" that Indef used to describe the government's foreign debts; saying that the loan benefits both the lender and the borrower.

"The term 'colonized by foreigners' is over the top. This is business to business—not colonialism, which aggravates one party and benefits the other," he said.

Indef senior economist Faisal Basri previsouly said that the government sells off debts through foreign-owned SBNs. "It is OK for the SBN to be controlled by foreign parties—if there is no turmoil. But now we are being colonized by a churning market. More and more, Indonesia is selling out debts," he said last Wednesday.

According to Bank Indonesia, up to January 2018, the government debt is indeed mostly derived from the issuance of SBN. The amount is US$124,550 or equivalent to Rp1.7 trillion. The amount of international or foreign SBN amounts to US$59.704 or equivalent to Rp819 million, while domestic SBN reaches US$64,845 or equivalent to Rp889 million.

ZARA AMELIA