The Indonesian B20 Task Force has held the first meeting in the series of B20 Indonesia Presidency 2022, where a number of crucial issues such as eliminating digital inequality, sharing green economy financing, and fighting global cybercrime became the main discussion.
The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) held the Inception Meeting of B20 Indonesia Presidency 2022 on January 27-28 in Jakarta. The two-days forum was attended by more than 2,000 participants and government delegations from G20 countries, including top executives from leading multinational companies and international institutions.
During the meeting, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and his cabinet paid serious attention to priority issues that must be discussed to advance national and global interests, as the forum provides important and strategic recommendations from the world business community to be discussed under the G20 Indonesia Presidency. A number of crucial issues discussed at this forum include the elimination of digital inequality, equitable distribution of green economy financing, and the issue of global cybercrime.
President Jokowi and leaders of international institutions such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, founder of WEF Professor Klaus Schwab, Secretary General of the ICC John W.H. Denton AO, Kishore Mahbubani from the NUS Asia Research Institute, Alok Sharma (President of COP26) and Mark Carney (UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance), John Kerry (US Special Presidential Envoy), Mari Elka Pangestu (Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships at the World Bank) as well as a number of company leaders including Bloomberg, Alibaba, Microsoft, Ericson, Saudi Aramco and others provided lots of important input and views.
Task Force and Priority Issues
B20 Indonesia Chairwoman Shinta Kamdani said that as a host, Indonesia had many opportunities to put forward national priority agendas and issues in addition to the policy recommendations for world economic recovery. There are three important things that Indonesia is aiming for in this forum, namely policy recommendations from 6 task forces and 1 action council formed by B20 Indonesia, Indonesia’s B20 legacy for the world, and lastly, concrete benefits for Indonesia including the inward investment as well as promotion of tourism and culture.
Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Arsjad Rasjid, who holds the highest responsibility for Indonesia’s B20 presidency, said the world needed to encourage collaboration, innovation and inclusivity in line with the transition towards post-pandemic. One of them is through dialogue and consultation forums between the Indonesian business community and the international community which is manifested at the B20 Indonesia Summit 2022 forum.
“For the Indonesian government, there are three priority issues that will determine the acceleration of recovery and the global economy, namely Global Health Architecture, Digital Transformation, and Energy Transition. We have the potential and even a great opportunity to take control of these three priority issues, because in fact we have come out of the crisis, have all the requirements to lead a new economy, have natural resources related to green energy and have a demographic bonus of a young workforce, “explained Arsjad.
The G20 and B20 presidencies can be one of the economic diplomacy strategies carried out by the Indonesian government and its strategic partner KADIN Indonesia. One of the strategies carried out by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) and the government is to establish 6 Task Forces and 1 Action Council which determines strategic issues to advance national and global priorities, namely Woman in Business Action Council, Digitalization, Energy, Sustainability & Climate, Finance & Infrastructure, Future of Work & Education, Trade & Investment and Integrity & Compliance. The issues under the supervision of this task force are the derivatives of three priority issues introduced by President Jokowi. Each of these task forces are interrelated towards each other.
Financing and Investment Are Key
Indonesian Investment Authority (INA) CEO Ridha Wirakusumah, who is the Chair of the Finance & Infrastructure Task Force, explained how financing and infrastructure are pivotal to global economic recovery. Infrastructure and financing, said Ridha, have a domino effect in the economy, so the task force encourages collaboration from all sectors to complement each other.
“We encourage collaboration between high- and middle-income countries to work together to provide access to affordable, long-term and low-cost financing to accelerate global recovery, one of which is through the development of digital infrastructure and a green economy,” said Ridha.
Arif Rachmat, the Chair of the Trade and Investment Task Force, said that his task force prepared 4 agendas, namely re-establishing a fair, transparent and efficient trade and economic regime, adopting digital technology so that all countries can access it so that there is equality, then encouraging inclusiveness towards women and MSMEs and finally transitioning towards green energy and a green economy.
“We are strengthening multilateral cooperation and modernizing the multilateral trading system, especially for MSMEs. We need global collaboration to mitigate future crises and promote technological innovation, including in health while encouraging trade liberalization in environmental goods and green energy & promoting regulatory cooperation to accelerate energy transition, resource efficiency, and a circular economy. Meanwhile for the national interest, of course we want to target big investment, showing Indonesia as the world’s investment center, ” explained Arif.
Chairman of the Integrity and Compliance Task Force and Managing Director of BCA, Haryanto T. Budiman said global efforts to recover from the pandemic must not ignore the aspects of integrity, compliance and sustainability. For this reason, said Haryanto, this task force emphasizes the recommendations for policies on anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism and integrity within government and business services, especially in the digital era where privacy rights must be protected from cybercrimes.
