President Jokowi Receives OECD Delegation

President Jokowi has a conversation with OECD delegation, at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on Monday (24/10) afternoon

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo received the delegation of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on Monday (24/10) to discuss several forms of cooperation, among others, tax reform in Indonesia. “So, according to them, it is important for Indonesia to carry out tax reform. Certainly, they know that we currently run tax amnesty program. This program could be combined as a basic to carry out improvements in taxation sector,” Coordinating Minister for the Economy Darmin Nasution said to the journalists after accompanying the President on that occasion.

According to the Secretary General of OECD, Angel Gurria, OECD recommends a number of measures to be taken by Indonesia to improve its taxation system.“The OECD raised a number of issues, such as information and technology in taxation sector, improvement in tax administration, and also tax policy,” Darmin Nasution said.

On that occasion, the President also explained that besides carrying out tax reform, Indonesia currently also focuses on developing infrastructure and preparing vocational education and training program.“The President also said that Indonesia is now preparing and will support vocational education and training. It is a program to be developed massively next year,” Darmin said.

Darmin added that the cooperation program between Indonesia and OECD has been established for 4 years or since 2012. The cooperation covers several sectors, among others tax and education reforms which are one of the key to increase economic growth.

According to Darmin, national economic growth in 2016 is projected to reach around 5 percent. “Economic growth at the first quarter was 4.978 percent whereas the second quarter was 5.18 percent. The growth at the third quarter is projected to reach 5.1-5.2 percent,” Darmin said.

On that occasion, President Jokowi was accompanied by Coordinating Minister for the Economy Darmin Nasution and Minister of State Secretary Pratikno.

Meanwhile, the members of OECD delegation are, as follows: 1. Angel Gurría, Secretary General of OECD; 2. Marcos Bonturi, Special Representative of OECD at the UN; 3. Juan Yermo, Deputy Chief of Staff of OECD; 4. Luiz de Mello, Deputy Director; 5.  Alexander Böhmer, Head of OECD Representative in Jakarta; and 6. Litsa Vavakis, Advisor to the Secretary General of OECD. (BPMI Setpres/ES)(MMB/YM/Naster)