President Jokowi Encourages SOE Subsidiaries to Release Shares Through IPO

President Jokowi, accompanied by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and a number of high-ranking officials, visits the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) on Tuesday (4/7)(Photo by: Agung/Public Relations Division)

President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo on Tuesday (4/7) made an impromptu visit to the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) in Jakarta.

Upon arrival at the IDX at around 11.15 am, the President directly headed to Tower 1 and Tower 2 at the IDX Compound until 1 pm.

On that occasion, President Jokowi was accompanied by Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani, Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI) Agus Martowardjojo, Chairman of the Financial Services Authority (OJK) Muliaman Hadad, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, and Minister of Manpower Hanif Dhakiri and had a dialog with stock exchange players.

Speaking to reporters during the visit, President Jokowi said he had invited foreign businessmen who have companies in Indonesia to enlist their companies at the IDX. “We invite them. We don’t force them. We invite them in good ways. They do production in Indonesia. They do plantation activities in Indonesia, why do they list their companies in other countries,” the President said.

President Jokowi also encourages subsidiaries of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to release shares to the public through an initial public offering (IPO). “We want to encourage subsidiaries to release shares to the public through an IPO because we need big funds to build infrastructures. We cannot get funds all from loans,” the President added.

On that occasion, the President also appreciated the IDX Composite that hit an all time high. “Our IDX Composite reached the level of 5,900 though it can be fluctuating. What does it mean? It means the market considers that our country Indonesia has a good prospect for investment,” the President said.

For the record, when President Jokowi Visited the IDX on Monday (3/7), the IDX Composite at the closing rose by 80.52 points or 1.38 percent into 5,910.23 points while on Tuesday (4/7), the IDX Composite dropped by 23.51 points or 0.40 percent at the opening into 5,886.72 points. (FID/AGG/ES) (EP/YM/Naster)