Sambutan Presiden Republik Indonesia pada St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF ’25) di ExpoForum Convention and Exhibition Centre, St. Petersburg, Rusia Jumat, 20 Juni 2025

Your Excellency President Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation;
Your Excellency Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, National Security Advisor to the King of Bahrain;
Your Excellency Paul Mashatile, Vice President of South Africa; 
Your Excellency Ding Xuexiang, Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China;
Distinguished Ministers, Business Leaders, Ladies and Gentlemen, Participants of this Forum. 

I am honored here today to be invited and to speak in this forum, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2025. This forum is a forum that combines and gathers leaders from the West, the Global South, the East, and where Eurasia meet. Indonesia views this summit as an opportunity to forge strategic trust. An opportunity to make deals in an increasingly complicated geopolitical situation.

Deals that can benefit our shared survival and our shared success. On this occasion, I would like to introduce myself. I am Prabowo Subianto, President of the Republic of Indonesia. I had just been inaugurated on 20th October 2024. And, this is my first international economic forum, so I apologize if  I am a bit nervous. 

Indonesia is the fourth largest country by population. Every year there are five million new Indonesians arriving in this world. Every year, five million. That means every year a group of people the size of Singapore. So, in 10 years there will be 10 Singapores in South East Asia, the size. I give this as an illustration of the size of Indonesia. This gives us great opportunity, but also gives us great challenge. Any leader of Indonesia must think how to feed five million more mouths every year, five million new school places, etc, etc. The hospitals and more important and most important is the food.

In my opinion, the duty of a government is first to protect its people. And, to protect its people means to protect its people from hunger and from poverty, and from the suffering of a challenging environment. Therefore, when I took over the government of Indonesia, my main priority was, first, to achieve self-sufficiency in food. Number two, self-sufficiency in energy. Number three, to improve the education level of Indonesians to be able to compete in the challenging era of the 21st century. And fourth, to speed up the industrialization of Indonesia.

Indonesia has been fortunate in being given by the Almighty Lord vast economic resources. Vast economic resources. But, these vast economic resources, if not wisely managed, actually can be a curse to our people. We have vast forests, we have vast minerals, we have a lot of commodities that are useful for the world, but this has to be managed well. 

And therefore, in my opinion, every country needs its own economic policy and its own economic philosophy. One of the big mistakes of many countries in South East Asia is that we tend to always follow the biggest and the most powerful power in the world. 

In the last 30 years, we see the dominance of the neoliberal capitalist classical free market philosophy, which basically tends to be laissez-faire. And the Indonesian elite followed this philosophy.

And therefore, in my opinion, we have not managed to create a level playing field for all our people. There is vast growth. We have grown 5 percent continuously, especially the last seven years. Yes, 35 percent in seven years. But, we have not managed to have this so-called trickle-down effect. The wealth remains at the top, less than 1 percent. And this is not a formula for success, in my opinion. 

Therefore, my position is this, that we must, each country must follow its own economic philosophy. The economic philosophy that is in tune and that can be accepted by each country’s culture and each country’s background. Therefore, I have chosen the path of compromise, the path of the best of socialism and the best of capitalism. 

Pure socialism, we have seen, does not work. It’s utopia. Pure socialism, we see many chances and many cases, people do not want to work. Pure capitalism results in inequality, results in only a small percentage enjoying the fruits of the wealth. But, our path is the path of the middle way. We want to use the creativity of capitalism, innovation, initiative. Yes, we need that.

But, we need government intervention to overcome poverty, overcome hunger, to intervene and to protect the weak. Because there is a danger in developing countries like Indonesia of what we consider the danger of state capture. The collusion between big capital business and government officials and political elite. In the end, the collusion between these two groups does not result in the alleviation of poverty and the widening of the middle class. 

Therefore, we have chosen the philosophy which in essence and in simplicity can be reduced to one sentence. The greatest good for the greatest many. That is our philosophy. Our government must work to bring the greatest good to the greatest many. And, in this case, we have to have a clean government, free of corruption. And, this I think is the key of rapid development. 

I am proud to stand here before you. In my seven months of administration, we have achieved an increase in rice and corn production of around 50 percent. And, this is the greatest increase in production, in aggregate, in the history of the Republic of Indonesia. 

And we have now in our government warehouses 4,4 million tons of rice, which is the largest reserve in the history of the Republic of Indonesia. In just a few months of my administration, we increased efficiency, we fought very strongly against corruption, we deregulated, we cut all the regulations which increased inefficiency, and we have seen rapid results. 

I believe that if Indonesia can play a good role, a positive role in international relations, for instance our participation in BRICS. We thank the government of Russia for supporting us to be a member of BRICS very fast. I think we are one of the fastest members to be accepted in BRICS. 

Also, Madam President, former President of Brazil and President of the New Development Bank. We are also accepted into the member of New Development Bank, also very fast. We thank also the government of China for supporting us and the government of South Africa. And, we believe that together BRICS can contribute significantly to the stability and prosperity of the world. 

I would like just to tell a slight story, not part of my speech, but I was asked why I did not attend the G7, but I attended the St. Petersburg Forum. And, it is not because I did not respect the G7, it is because I gave my commitment to attend this forum before they invited me. So, that is the only reason. 

So, please do not read too much into the event. Sometimes political observers, they want to read, is this a political statement, right? No. Indonesia by tradition, always non-aligned, we respect all countries. Our foreign policy is very simple, one phrase. “One thousand friends, too few. One enemy, too many.” We want to be friends with everybody. Only with friendship, collaboration can we achieve prosperity. 

So, thank you very much President Putin for inviting me. And because you invited me, I can be here today in this historic city, a city of heroism, a city of great patriotism. As an amateur student of history, I followed the history of Russia and I know the significance of St. Petersburg. And, I had the honor of attending the cemetery of the victims of the war a few days ago. So, thank you very much for this invitation.

For many times, I have said in many forums that Indonesia has chosen the path of non-alignment. We consider that this world must develop into a multipolar world and is developing towards a multipolar world. The world of unipolar centrality is past. This is the trend of history. This is what is happening in front of us. 

So, I value very much the leadership of Russia and the leadership of also China. And I want to be very frank. In the present world, in the Global South, I think many from the Global South will agree with me. Russia and China have never had double standards. Russia and China have always defended the downtrodden, have always defended the oppressed, and have always fought for the justice of all peoples of the world. So, I say this from my heart. Therefore, Indonesia wants to be a good partner and a strong partner.

My experts tell me that in this first semester, our economic growth is more than 5 percent. Actually, it can really end up by the end of this year nearly 7 percent or even more. So, this shows that we have chosen the right path and we are achieving our goals.

I am very convinced that we will achieve our goals within a few years. I have given the target four years self-sufficiency in food and we are experiencing that we can be self-sufficient in food within this one year. And, we will be in a few years a net exporter of rice and corn.

Also, now I have formed a sovereign wealth fund which we call Danantara, which means the future energy of Indonesia. So, this fund we make to protect the wealth of our children and grandchildren. The fund now has USD1,000 billion of assets under management. And, this year we have cash to invest of 18 billion Dollars. We want to work together with all strategic partners. We do not ask for assistance. We do not ask for handouts. We want to be a real partner. We want to achieve together real prosperity.

We are open for business. We invite all groups from everywhere, especially Russian entities. Before I was elected, I was an entrepreneur and I have good relations with Russian corporations. My brother has been active in this area for many, many years, I think more than two decades. So, we know Russian corporations and we would like to see Russia participate more in our economy. 

I have mentioned our foreign policy. We have always been and we will continue to be non-aligned. 

We thank Russia for helping us and for achieving the Indonesian-Eurasian Union, CEPA, Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. And we have completed also negotiations with other groups, block CPTPP, also with the European Union, CEPA. And, we also request to join the OECD. 

For us, the world and the planet is getting smaller. We will work together with you for peaceful collaboration, peaceful coexistence with all countries.

We view with sincere regret the escalation and increase of conflicts around the world, especially in the Middle East. And, we hope that all parties can come to a peaceful resolution as soon as possible. 

I think, distinguished guests, I have come to the end of my short speech. I apologize if what I say is not what is expected of me, but what I say comes from my heart. 

Thank you very much.