Indonesia Wakes Up the World

KOMPAS/ICOM/AM IMF-WBG/WISNU WIDIANTORO/2018

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (second right), World Bank President Jim Yong-kim (right) and IMF managing director Christine Lagarda (third right) walk to the room of the Plenary Session of the 2018 IMF-WB Annual Meetings, at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center, Nusa Dua, Bali, on Friday, Oct. 12.

NUSA DUA, KOMPAS - Countries in the world are being encouraged to work together to face the global economic and financial situation. Conflicts can destroy the world and make people unable to face the new economic landscape.

Indonesia has called on the world to work together and collaborate to face the uncertainties of the global economy and finance. The world’s fiscal and monetary policy makers were asked to make policies that could curb the impacts of the trade war, technological disruption and market uncertainties.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo emphasized that the world should not be destroyed by disputes between one and another country and by the change that has taken place.

The President conveyed the message in his speech at the opening of the plenary session of the 2018 Annual Meetings of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Nusa Dua, Bali, Friday.

In his welcome speech, the President, who wore a contemporary batik shirt with a motive about the story of human civilization, likened the condition of global uncertainty to the popular TV series about power struggles Game of Thrones, created by David Benioff and DB Weiss.

The opening speech was warmly welcomed by the IMF’s managing director Christine Lagarde, the WB’s President Jim Yong-kim, leaders of ASEAN countries, as well as monetary and fiscal policy makers of major countries. The speech received a standing ovation from the audience.

President Jokowi said the United States had enjoyed rapid growth in its economy, while many countries suffered from weak growth. The trade war is widespread and technological innovations have hurt a lot of industries. This has forced many countries to experience strong market pressure.

"With various problems in the world economy, it is enough for us to say ‘Winter is coming’," he said.

According to the President, in the last few decades, developed countries had encouraged developing countries to open up and participate in the free trade and open up their financial systems. However, lately, relations among developed economies increasingly look like Game of Thrones. The balance of power and relations between developed economies is breaking down.

Weak cooperation and coordination has caused many problems, such as a drastic increase in crude oil prices and chaos in the currency markets of developing countries.

"In the Game of Thrones series, a number of Great Houses, Great Families, fight each other to take control of the Iron Throne. However, they forgot, when the Great Houses were busy fighting, they did

not realize the appearance of the Evil Winter who wanted to destroy and control the entire world with ice and destruction," said the President.

With the threat, said the President, they were aware that it did not matter who was sitting in The Iron Throne. “What matters is the collaboration to defeat the Evil Winter so that global shocks will not happen and the world will not turn into a ravaged barren land.”

"The big global threats can only be overcome if we work together. We must work together, save our lives together. For that, we must ask; Is now the right time for rivalry and competition or is it the right time for cooperation and collaboration?"

The IMF estimates that the world economy in 2018 and 2019 will grow by 3.7 percent. The world trade volume is expected to grow by 4.2 percent in 2018 and 4 percent in 2019.

Indonesia’s Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita stated that trade negotiations and diplomacy continued, especially to overcome the obstacles that hampered major export commodities.

New landscape

Lagarde said, currently the world was facing the challenges of a new economic landscape in two dimensions. The first dimension includes the monetary and fiscal. The second and most challenging dimension centers on issues of inequality, technology and sustainability.

To deal with these problems, good domestic policies are very important. However, that is no longer enough. It needs a new model of international cooperation that is different from the previous one. "I call it new multilateralism, which is more inclusive, more people oriented, and more result oriented," she said.

In a press conference of the G-20 countries, Argentine Finance Minister Nicolas Dujovne said the global economy was projected to be positive even though the pressure caused by the US policy normalization was quite large. The G-20 members would increase international trade to maintain the momentum of economic growth.

Jim Yong-kim said that world leaders should have begun to focus on human resource (HR) investment. Quality HR skills are needed to achieve sustainable economic growth.

The executive director of the United Nations for Women (UN Women\'s) Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said the role of women in sustainable development was very important, especially amid increasing global economic pressure. (H E N / D I M / K R N)