Coordinating Minister Airlangga Ensures Israel-Palestine War Won’t Disrupt Indonesian Investment

Jakarta – Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto ensured that the geopolitical war conflicts that are currently heating up globally will not interfere with the flow of investment into the country.

Airlangga said, both the Russia-Ukraine war and the increasingly tense Israel-Hamas (Palestine) war did not affect the Southeast Asian region. In fact, the Southeast Asian region, including Indonesia, is stable in terms of investment flows.

“Indonesia itself is one of the regions in Asean which in the last 20 years has been stable despite the Russia-Ukraine war and so on,” he said at the HSBC Summit 2023, in Jakarta, Wednesday, October 11, 2023.

That said, the epicenter of world growth has shifted to the Asian region. So that he is optimistic that it will not affect investment in the country.

“Because the stability continues to shift where the epicenter is the Indo Pacific region,” he explained.

On the one hand, based on a survey by one institution, among Asean countries, Indonesia is a country with relatively more profit than other countries.

“So this guarantees that investment in Indonesia is safe and provides the best average return compared to other Asean countries,” he concluded.

The Israel-Hamas conflict was also highlighted by Minister Sri Mulyani’s subordinate who attended the HSCB Summit 2023, Expert Staff for Financial Services and Capital Markets of the Ministry of Finance Arief Wibisono.

“We see that the global economic situation is still filled with uncertainty. The challenges have not subsided even though the Covid-19 pandemic has ended and passed,” Arief explained.

He assessed that global fragmentation and geopolitical tensions still occur in the world, including slowing economic growth in several countries, to above-target inflation, and interest rates that will still be high for a longer time.

“Global fragmentation and geopolitical tensions are still increasing in Europe, Asia, and in recent days in Israel-Palestine,” he concluded.

Apart from the Israel-Hamas war conflict, he also highlighted the sluggishness of the Chinese economy. Even though he said, China has become one of the major trading partners for Indonesia.

According to him, the weakening of the Chinese economy could potentially have an impact on Indonesia. However, he is optimistic that Indonesia can be resilient by maintaining economic growth above 5 percent. (*)