B20 Forum to Accelerate Economic Recovery

Indonesia's G20 presidency to create a global business climate that was more conducive to domestic businesses.

MAHDI MUHAMMAD

Leaders of G20 member countries during a group photo session at the G20 Summit which took place in Rome, Italy, Saturday (10/30/2021). (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Indonesia’s G20 presidency is expected to effect the increased competitiveness of the business climate amid the Covid-19 pandemic to encourage more inclusive economic growth. Efforts to meet this expectation will be optimized through a forum of the global business community, called the B20 (Business 20).

The inaugural B20 meeting is scheduled to run for two days in Jakarta starting on Thursday (27/1/2022), and is themed “Innovative Progress, Inclusiveness and Collaborative Growth”. Arsjad Rasjid, the chair of the B20 Indonesia Advisory Board, said on Wednesday (26/1) that the forum would be attended by 1,500 participants consisting of leaders of multinational companies, business organizations and communities, as well as high-ranking officials and policymakers from all G20 member countries.

Arsjad, who also chairs the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), said that a crucial part of the inaugural B20 meeting was the attendance of high-ranking officials and delegates from G20 countries. They were expected to provide views and inputs on policy recommendations in the context of post-pandemic economic recovery.

Also read:

> G20 Forum not only for Elite Businessmen

>Public Expectations on the G20 Presidency

President Joko Widodo and Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto will be attending the forum as keynote speakers.

Other high-ranking officials who will be attending as keynote speakers include former British prime minister Tony Blair and World Economic Forum (WEF) founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab. Also attending the forum is Kishore Mahbubani, a researcher from the National University of Singapore’s Asian Research Institute.

"The government hopes that the B20 forum will become Indonesia's jumping-off point out of the economic crisis," said Arsjad.

Investments

Kadin deputy chair Shinta W. Kamdani, who chairs the B20 organizing committee, said that Indonesia’s G20 presidency aimed to create a global business climate that was more conducive to domestic businesses.

Also read:

>Policy Normalization and G20 Presidency

She added that the business climate in Indonesia was beginning to pick up, as the Covid-19 pandemic was receding to allow for economic recovery. She believed that the B20 could be a stepping-stone to accelerate recovery of the Indonesian economy.

"This is not merely a matter of how to organize an event [well], but how to increase the flow of investments to Indonesia," Shinta said

This article was translated by Musthofid.