IMF-WB: Sri Mulyani Receives Best Finance Minister Award

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati receives an award as Global Market Magazine`s Best Minister of Finance in the East Asia and Pacific region.

The award was handed to Sri Mulyani in between the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group in Nusa Dua, Bali on Saturday evening.

Global Markets believed Sri Mulyani is deserving of the award as she was able to manage fiscal conditions with a budget deficit maintained below three percent, which can be seen from the realization of tax revenues, which reached 91 percent of the target, and the absorption of government spending by 97 percent in 2017, which is higher than in previous years.

She also has a significant role in reducing the poverty rate, which is currently recorded to have reached one digit, and reducing the level of inequality.

In her remarks, she said that the achievement would not be possible without the hard work from all staff of the Ministry of Finance.

"Of course we have to examine their standards. If I mention that the effectiveness and credibility of the State Budget, I think that is a considerably good criteria as it shows what the Ministry of Finance has been doing," she said.

She said that maintenance of fiscal is not easy to be carried out when the global economic condition is currently uncertain.

However, Sri Mulyani vowed to make serious effort to achieve the realization of tax revenues, ensuring that it does not go too far from the target, through a number of extension programs, including by obtaining taxpayers` data from tax amnesty programs, as well as exchanging access to information automatically.

In addition, she ensured that there will be improvement in the quality of government spending in order to increase the level of welfare and prosperity for the community.

Global Markets is a leading news magazine in international economy and in the last 30 years, the publication have become a reference for actors and institutions in the global economic and financial sector.

Previously, Minister Sri Mulyani had also received several awards including the 2006 Asia Best Finance Minister by the Emerging Markets Forum at the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Singapore in 2006.

In addition, she was also named the best Finance Minister in 2006 by Euromoney magazine and the 23rd most influential woman in the world by Forbes 2008 magazine.

The former Managing Director of the World Bank was also named the world`s best minister at the World Government Summit in Dubai, February 2018.

ANTARA