President Jokowi Tells Entrepreneurs to Build Trust
President Jokowi inaugurates HIPMI National Conference in Solo, Central Java province, Monday (11/21). (Source: a screenshot)
Entrepreneurs must build trust in order to boost the growth of their businesses and the national economy, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said.
“When we become entrepreneurs, we also have to build people’s trust in us. As a country, we also build international trust, global trust, and gain the trust of other countries. This is not easy,” he said Monday (11/21) during the inauguration of the 17th National Conference of the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (HIPMI) at Alila Solo Hotel in Surakarta city, Central Java province.
The President also pointed out that Indonesia has just finished its duties as the G20 Presidency and now holds the ASEAN Chairmanship.
“It is a great mandate and honor. We are currently at the top of global leadership because we are now the Chair of ASEAN,” he said, while underscoring that global trust is not easily earned.
“Our economy is good. Among the G20 countries, ours is one of the good ones. It allows us to build trust. During the Indonesian G20 Presidency, when we held the G20 Summit in Bali, our economy in the third quarter [of 2022] was 5.72 percent,” he said.
The President also said that the national inflation rate remains in check at 5.7 percent, with export value in the third quarter growing by 21.6 percent.
“Our trade balance has recorded a surplus for 30 months in a row, meaning that we can still export our domestically produced goods. Remember, the situation is different in other countries,” he said.
Nevertheless, the President reminded the entrepreneurs that the global situation remains uncertain and hard to predict; hence, hey need to be careful and vigilant as well as to prepare the right strategies to face it.
“I always tell ministers to be careful in making policies in a highly vulnerable situation like now. Do not make a mistake, especially in doing something that relates to the lives of many people,” he said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Investment Bahlil Ladadalia, who is also Head of the Board of HIPMI Supervisors, pointed out that the global trust in Indonesia has accelerated the realization of investment in the country, adding that the value of investment as of the third quarter of 2022 reached Rp892.4 trillion or 74.4 percent of the 2022 investment target of Rp1,200 trillion.
“Since Indonesia’s independence until 2022, most of our investment was concentrated in the island of Java, but since the third quarter of 2020 until the third quarter of 2022, we have had more investment outside of Java because we must believe that equal growth and economic growth in new areas attract investment,” he said.
According to Bahlil, the investment trend shows that the majority of investment in Indonesia is not made by a certain country.
In 2021, he added, Singapore has the most investment, followed by Hong Kong, China, the United States of America, and Japan.
“We have a principle. As long as countries abide by the law in our country, we will serve them. There is no special treatment, so it is not true that we give special treatment to certain countries. We treat them the same way because our country has free and active [foreign] policies and the economy is free and active too,” he said. (FID/DND/UN) (DH/EP)
