Introductory Remarks of President of the Republic of Indonesia with Global Investor Ray Dalio at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, Friday, March 7, 2025

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
May peace be upon us all.
Shalom,
Salve,
Om swastiastu,
Namo Buddhaya,
Greetings of virtue.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

First and foremost, praise be to God Almighty, for Muslims, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala. For all the blessings He has endowed us with, including good health, we are able to gather this evening for an informal meeting with Indonesian national businesspeople, prominent figures, and officials. Today, we have the honor of hosting Mr. Raymond Thomas Dalio, a businessman, an entrepreneur, a global investor who has decades of experience in the economic sector, [and] decades of experience in the investment sector in our region, in Asia, in the Middle East. He is also highly experienced in interacting with the sovereign wealth fund of several countries. He was present when China opened its door to the world during the era of Deng Xiaoping and afterward. I knew him from a while back. I had a lot of discussions with him, and he observed the development of our Republic of Indonesia a lot, giving me a lot of input.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Together, just a while ago, we initiated an agency that serves as a sovereign wealth fund and has quite a huge potential. We named it Danantara Indonesia Investment Management Board, Daya Anagata Nusantara. Danantara Indonesia is a consolidation of the Indonesian Government’s economic power, consisting of state-owned enterprises. We consolidated Danantara to make improvements, to enhance performance by making improvements when necessary. We do admit that we need improvements to ensure the good performance of our assets.
For that reason, I invited everyone who can offer us critical perspectives [and] share their experiences, how they make investments, so Indonesia’s assets can be managed as best as possible, as prudent as possible. Thus, all of our economic entities can operate efficiently and compete with other global entities. We will move fast, but we will also move carefully and prudently.
Therefore, I invited Indonesia’s private sector economic figures with decades of experience in management, investment, and collaboration with the Government. Thus, Danantara’s operations will proceed in a careful and prudent manner.

That concludes my introductory remarks.

So, Ray, I hope I still can call you Ray, always. Ray you are a good friend. You became a good friend of mine, and I think we would like you to be a good friend of Indonesia. I just explained how we are very fortunate to have you as a very experienced, let me say a very experienced, player in global economics. A lot of experience in Asia, in the Middle East, and in the world. We’re very fortunate to have you as a friend, and we would like to always interact with you and listen to you and your experiences. I think you are in a position where you can talk with us openly and sometimes critically, and I said we do need critical advice. I think that the key to progress in the new world is always to be able to seek critical advice and have the courage to learn from others. I think that’s the key. So, we have already had a lot of efforts but now we want to launch this—we have launched this national new sovereign wealth fund. And we are very fortunate to have you today, so I think there is a very long introduction. But, I think we [should] just go straight to this event.

I would like to introduce you to those who are present here. So [on] my left is—I think you know him—this friend of yours, Mr. General Luhut Pandjaitan, who is now the chairman of our National Economic Council. And on the right next to you is our Minister of Finance, Mrs. Sri Mulyani Indrawati. And then to my left directly is our Minister of Energy and Minerals, Mr. Bahlil Lahadalia.

And then around the table, Mr. Syamsuddin, more known as Haji Isam but his full name is Mr. Andi Syamsuddin Arsyad, who’s from the Jhonlin Group. And then Mr. Chairul Tanjung from CT Corporation. And then Mr. James Riady from Lippo Group. And then Mr. Prajogo Pangestu from Barito and Chandra Asri—Barito and Chandra Asri is a petrochemical [company], and Barito is in [the] forestry [sector], and Lippo is [in the sectors of] banking, real estate, and many others, food also. I remember it’s got one of the biggest retails in Indonesia, Matahari Department Stores and supermarkets. And then Mr. Tomy Winata from Artha Graha group, in banking also real estate, a lot of social work. And then Mr. Edward Wanandi, who is actually based mostly in the United States, right? And he’s caring enough. I’ve asked him to be my advisor in helping me navigate relations with the United States. I think we need a lot of help in navigation there.

And then, Mr. Pandu Sjahrir, who is now the leadership of Danantara, is the Chief Investment Officer. And then Mr. Dony Oskaria is the COO, Chief Operations Officer [of] Danantara, [who] is also the Deputy Minister of State Owned Enterprise. And then Mr. Sakti Wahyu Trenggono is our Minister for the Sea and Fisheries—because I know you’re passionate about the ocean, so I asked him to attend. And, of course, we have Mr. Rosan. Mr. Rosan is now the CEO of Danantara and he’s still the Minister of Investment and Downstream Industries. And, of course Mr. Erick Thohir, Minister of State Owned Enterprise and he is the chairman of the supervisory council of Danantara.

And then we have Mr. Hashim Djojohadikusumo from Arsari Group, who happens to be also my brother, which is not his fault. And then next to it, we have Mr. Garibaldi Thohir, who is a leading entrepreneur in Indonesia. He is from Adaro Group. He happens also to be the brother of Erick Thohir, which is not Erick Thohir’s fault. And then next to Mr. Garibaldi is Mr. Aguan. His full name is Mr. Sugianto Kusuma from Agung Sedayu Group, which also is conglomerate based on, I think, property but a lot of industries also. And then Mr. Hilmi Panigoro, Mr. Hilmi Panigoro is from MedcoEnergi, mainly into oil and gas but also now into other forms of mining. Then we have Mr. Franky Widjaja from Sinarmas Group, one of the biggest groups. We have Mr. Anthony Salim from the Salim Group.

So, and then, of course, I am backed up by my Minister of State [Secretary] and then my Cabinet Secretary, there in charge of my presidential administration. So, that’s the introduction. And now I think we invite Mr. Ray Dalio maybe to make some comments and then we can start the discussion. What do you think?
(DH/LW)