Sri Mulyani: Women Representation in Global Policy Still Lacking

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani said that the involvement and representation of women in global policy making so far is still minimum. As a result, Sri Mulyani added, global uncertainty that occurred in 2019 and continues to this day has been related to man-made policies.

She went on to list the various problems that occurred, ranging from the exit of Britain from the European Union aka Brexit, the trade wars of the United States and China, to demonstrations in Hong Kong; all of which have been a result made by men. "Almost everything is related to man made. In a sense, the man made the problem," Sri Mulyani said at the Fairmont Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday, February 5, 2020.

Recently, Britain has officially left the European Union on January 31, 2020. Britain's exit from the European Union was led by the British Prime Minister from the Conservative Party, Boris Johnson. On the other hand, the trade war between the United States and China was triggered by the protective policies of United States President Donald Trump, which was responded by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

These global uncertainties weakened global economic growth in 2019. As a result, within last year, a number of countries in the world had prepared policies to deal with the weakening of the global economy and to improve the domestic or regional economy.

According to Sri Mulyani, many countries had seemed to run out of ammunition and lacked strategy in dealing with the weakening of the global economy in the past decade. Consequently, it created a turmoil in the global market. "This is worrying."

In spite of this, Sri Mulyani claimed that Indonesia’s economic condition has actually been an anomaly compared to the global economy, as the country's economic growth was recorded to have been stable at around 5 percent. The driving factor for growth has historically been domestic consumption.

CAESAR AKBAR | DIO SUHENDA (INTERN TRANSLATOR)