TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Joko "Jokowi" Widodo will represent Indonesia in international forum as the president for the first time in G20 meeting that will be held in November in Brisbane, Australia.
Denny Abdi, the deputy of directorate general for economic and environmental development in the Foreign Affairs Ministry, said Indonesia would focus on increasing investment in infrastructure.
"G20 will be an important place for our new president to introduce his priorities, which are infrastructure and development,” he told a press conference on Sunday.
He said Indonesia had continued calling on G20 countries to boost their investment in the nation's infrastructure projects, which would leverage Indonesia's economic growth.
“Infrastructure becomes one of the solutions because infrastructure is part of the government’s projects. So, judging from credibility, infrastructure projects have more guaranteed return.”
Chris Kanter, the deputy director of International Chamber of Commerce in international trade and economic cooperation, also said he sought to invest in infrastructure projects. “So that the people can feel the benefits. Not only trade issues, tax regulations and finance,” he said.
Chris also suggested talks on capacity development. “We want investment and capacity development to be realized. Otherwise it will be harder for the country to develop and eradicate poverty.”
Denny is upbeat that this target can be achieved because G20 has proved to be one of the solutions in crises, such as those in 1998 and 2008. The second reason is because G20 is viewed as the right organization to set agendas through its working groups, and the last is because G20 is a place to foster partnerships and cooperation.
G20 is a group of developed and developing countries that aims at solving global economic challenges. This group consists of 19 countries plus the European Union.
The members represent 85 percent of the world’s gross domestic product, more than 75 percent of global trade scale and two-thirds of the world’s population. State leaders meet annually while economic ministers and governor of central banks of each country meet multiple times a year.
ATMI PERTIWI