Businesses Expected to Defuse Geopolitical Tensions

Believed to have resilience against the rivaling and fragmenting heated geopolitics, business relations are expected to be able to help promote peace.

KOMPAS/HENDRA A SETYAWAN

Hundreds of invitees attended the opening of the B20 Summit in Nusa Dua Bali, Sunday (11/13/2022)

NUSA DUA, KOMPAS — Protracted geopolitical tensions have further eroded the world's confidence in the international trades and triggered protectionism in many countries. This is where global business community is expected to bridge the various conflicting interests and put the global recovery efforts back on track.

The calls for the global business circles to take part in reducing geopolitical tensions were conveyed by almost all the speakers on the opening day of the Business 20 (B20) gathering at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center (BNDCC) in Badung, Bali, on Sunday (11/13/2022).

A prelude to the Group of 20 Summit, the B20 is a discussion forum for business actors from the world’s largest economies in the G20 and other countries. The forum, which is being held until today (Monday, 14 Nov.), is featuring some 2,000 participants and involving 1,500 companies from 65 countries.

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Delivering a speech at the discussion session on the future of global trade, the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) president Jeffrey Sachs said the world was increasingly polarized, with more countries now taking protectionist measures over their domestic interests than 10 years back.

The economic downturn and disruption to global supply chains that already occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic have now been exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. While old crises have yet to be resolved, geopolitical tensions have brought fragmentation in the world and triggered new crises in energy, food and finance.

"The idea that we don't need to depend on other countries is a big mistake. We need mutual dependence. I depend on you, you depend on me. That's how the world should work," Sachs said.

The [world] leaders who will meet in the next few days need to hear from the business community that the economy cannot function and will never recover in an increasingly protectionist and vulnerable environment like this.

In the midst of increasingly sharp fragmentation at the government level of each country, he hoped that voices from the business world could ease the overshadowing tensions. He viewed the business interests as going relatively fluidly beyond ideological and political constraints and that they should be able to melt the polarization.

“Your voice as business actors really matters and to be honest, it’s not being adequately heard right now. The [world] leaders who will meet in the next few days need to hear from the business community that the economy cannot function and will never recover in an increasingly protectionist and vulnerable environment like this," he said.

KOMPAS/HENDRA A SETYAWAN

Speakers (right to left) Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Financial Services Authority Mahendra Siregar, Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin and Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif were the opening speakers for the Business 20 Summit (KTT B20) in Nusa Dua, Bali, Sunday (13/11/2022).

When officially opening the B20 event, Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) chairman Arsjad Rasjid raised the same concern. He reminded the global business community in the B20 forum about the agreed 5P principles, which are peace, prosperity, people, planet (earth) and partnership.

“The first key is peace. Without it, all our efforts will be in vain. It's a tough [task], but it's something governments around the world need to be aware of right now. There has been much evidence that the global business community can collaborate and bridge differences," he said.

Business communiqué

The calls for state leaders to end the conflict and refocus on an inclusive economic recovery will be one of the points of the communiqué agreed upon by the B20 forum. The communique will include 25 points of policy recommendations, 68 suggested concrete actions, as well as a number of programs that are expected to carry over to next G20 presidency to be held by India.

Arsjad hoped that the B20 communique that would be presented on the second day of gathering today (Monday, 14/11) could later be adopted at the G20 Summit as part of the the state leaders’ declaration of commitment. "Experiences over the past 11 months have showed that in the midst of an increasingly divisive world, there is hope [the world] forgoes differences to collaborate," he said.

Previously, in a special interview with Kompas last week, Arsjad said business sector and politics were like two opposing but inseparable sides of a coin. This could be seen, he said, from the persisting engagements between business circles within the G20 member countries whose governments’ political views were at odds.

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B2B (business to business) cooperation goes on between companies from opposing countries geopolitically. "Business goes beyond politics. The G20 meeting may be tough; the B20 atmosphere is more fluid," he said.

The appeals to put an end to the conflicts and focus back on the global-trading track are one of the substances in the communiqué drafted by the B20 Trade and Investment Task Force.

Task force working-group chair Arif Rachmat said that it was becoming increasingly urgent to build a strong and politically resilient global-trading system with the world entering next year overshadowed by the impending global recession.

This is the time for the business community to play a bigger role.

"We call on the state leaders to promote a more open, just and inclusive trade and investment climate by returning to the spirit of multilateralism. [The goal] is that we can strengthen global cooperation and help countries to recover faster from the prolonged impact of the [Covid-19] pandemic," he said.

On the sidelines of the B20 gathering, the Financial Services Authority (OJK)’s board of commissioners’ chairman Mahendra Siregar, expressed his confidence that global business cooperation could interfere in tough issues that appeared to be a snag in government-to-government relations. The global business community is expected to help bridge the conflicting interests that have disrupted the pace of economic recovery.

"While being pinned on the state leaders, our hopes for the efforts to bridge the current conflicts, from the political perspective, seem difficult [to materialize]. This is the time for the business community to play a bigger role,” Mahendra said.

This article was translated by Musthofid.