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Oktober 2018 - FORBES Indonesia

Not since the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Jakarta, in 1992, which was attended by heads of state from over 120 members, has Indonesia organized a behemoth international gathering on the scale of this month's IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Bali (Oct. 8-14). Coming on the heels of the much-acclaimed 18th Asian Games in August in Jakarta and Palembang, the Bali meetings define Indonesia's growing confidence on the world stage. Confidence also figures high in Luhut B. Panjaitan, who as Chairman of the National Committee on the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings, had pulled out all the stops to make it happen.

A former Red Berets commander and a retired four-star Army general, Luhut combined military experience, diplomatic skills (he was once ambassador to Singapore) and economic expertise (he is also a former trade and industry minister) to organize the meetings -- it will be attended by over 16,000 delegates, investors, NGOs, academics and media representatives -- in less than two years. While detractors question the wisdom of holding international meetings that cost billions of rupiahs of taxpayers' money, the bottom line is that all of that is well spent in terms of new infrastructure and job creation for 32,000 people. Meanwhile, Bali's economy is set to grow by 0.65% within merely two weeks.

As Luhut pointed out, high-profile investors such as Jack Ma and top executives of Black Rock and Facebook will also descend upon Bali. Over $40 billion worth of projects are up for grabs by foreign investors, yet another testament that the Bali meetings are worth holding. The meetings could not have happened at a better time as, in the words of Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, "we are amidst a global economy that is undergoing huge changes."

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