Indonesia’s key reformers set to stay in next cabinet

By Muklis Ali
BOGOR, Indonesia (Reuters) – Indonesia’s finance and trade ministers, technocrats with international profiles, said on Saturday they would be in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s next cabinet, confirming a commitment to reform and growth.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, expected to keep her post in the next government, said the president had asked her to be in his next cabinet, but declined to give details.
Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said she had been asked by Yudhoyono to work in an economic post, to maintain economic growth, boost trade, and improve the investment climate, an indication she was likely to remain at the trade ministry.
Both Indrawati and Pangestu are economists who have been instrumental in driving reform and raising Indonesia’s profile abroad with investors and trade partners.
Their reappointment would be welcomed by many investors.
“It’s not a surprise, but it’s reassuring for investors that sensible macroeconomic policies will continue,” said James Bryson, whose firm HB Capital invests in Indonesian stocks.
Yudhoyono, a reformist ex-general who won a second, five-year term in presidential elections in July, is due to announce his cabinet following his inauguration on October 20.
There has been intense speculation for weeks over which ministers would keep their posts and whether Yudhoyono would pick more technocrats and professionals — a crucial sign of his commitment to reform — rather than career politicians.
Journalists crowded outside Yudhoyono’s home near Bogor, south of the capital Jakarta, as the President interviewed cabinet candidates over the weekend.
INVESTOR INTEREST
Investor interest in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, has picked up sharply this year thanks to political and economic stability when many of its export-dependent neighbours have been badly hit by the downturn in the global economy.
Yudhoyono’s Democrat Party won a parliamentary election in April, paving the way for him to win a second, five-year term in the July presidential poll with a strong mandate for reform.
Indonesian stocks have surged 85 percent this year, while the rupiah currency has risen 18 percent against the dollar, making it one of the best performing currencies in Asia.
Indrawati said Yudhoyono had discussed the importance of boosting economic growth, set to reach 4-4.5 percent this year.
“The president asked me to participate in cabinet for 2009-2014,” she told reporters.
“Several important issues raised by the president included the need to increase economic performance and continue to promote economic activities for the welfare of the people. Also to open up job opportunities and to cut poverty and to boost economic growth.”
She said Yudhoyono had also discussed ways to improve financing by the central and regional governments and the private sector, as well as the need to raise Indonesia’s profile among the Group of 20, or G20, nations.
“I was asked to do duty in the economic field,” Pangestu told reporters. “I was asked by the president to keep economic growth and to increase trade, especially domestic trade, and also to increase investment and to improve the investment climate.”
Indrawati holds both the finance ministry and the economic co-ordinating posts, but the latter may have been taken on by State Secretary Hatta Rajasa. He also met the president and said he would have an economic post in the cabinet.
Rajasa did not elaborate, but there has been speculation he could be appointed co-ordinating minister for the economy.
Rajasa is a close ally of the president widely expected to get a cabinet post.
“It is very clearly in the economic sector,” Rajasa said. “The president talked about our economic sector, what we have to achieve, how we cut poverty.”
(Writing by Sara Webb; Editing by Ron Popeski)