Indonesia Leader Taps Jokowi Heavyweights for Economic Team

(Bloomberg) — Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto is entrusting his economic team to the steady hands of seasoned veterans, calling back Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Luhut Panjaitan for key posts to ensure policy continuity and credibility amid a worsening global environment.

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Indrawati was sworn in as finance minister on Monday, along with hundreds of other ministers, agency heads and deputies. Prabowo also named Panjaitan to head the National Economic Council, a high-level think tank that will advise the new government on how to accelerate growth in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

The return of two pivotal figures from the previous Joko Widodo administration underscores Prabowo’s focus on stability even while charting his own course to achieve his goal of world-beating 8% growth during his five-year term.

“Prabowo seems to want to hit the ground running and doesn’t want to experiment too much,” said Maybank Indonesia economist Myrdal Gunarto. “Stability is important to him, and so is faster growth.”

Reappointing Indrawati, who has served two other presidents in the past 20 years, could bolster investor confidence in Indonesia’s fiscal stability in the face of Prabowo’s ambitious spending plans, which include an almost $30 billion free lunch program for school children.

During her time as Jokowi’s finance chief, she consistently kept the budget deficit within its legal limits of 3% of gross domestic product, helping bolster Indonesia’s investment-grade credit ratings.

Panjaitan is also no stranger to international investors. He was Jokowi’s go-to man for everything from minerals to tourism policy over the last decade. And in his prior role as coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment, he was a driving force behind Indonesia’s downstreaming efforts.

His new role should help spur new breakthroughs and stave off external risks to drive more robust economic growth, Gunarto said.

Prabowo’s 109-strong Red-White Cabinet, referring to the colors of the national flag, is the largest since the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998. It’s stacked with some of his closest allies and about a third of the cabinet posts are held by incumbents from the previous administration as Prabowo is consolidating his hold over Indonesia’s political and government elites.

Prabowo expanded his new government by splitting up several departments and forming new coordinating ministries. They include the coordinating ministry for food affairs, helmed by Zulkifli Hasan, and another one for infrastructure, led by Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono. Both would oversee his flagship free meal program and housing projects.

The government is seeking to develop farmland in the easternmost province of Papua to offset shrinking production from the Java region and bolster food self-sufficiency, which Prabowo wants to achieve in five years, Hasan said on Monday.

The president scrapped the coordinating ministry for maritime affairs and investment and instead created the investment and downstreaming ministry. Led by former Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani, the beefed-up agency will focus on expanding downstreaming to commodities beyond critical minerals, such as agriculture and fisheries products.

Red-Tape Risk

Although some ministerial decoupling is intended to focus oversight on priority issues, there are concerns that the enlarged cabinet could bring more red tape, foster patronage politics and boost spending on government servant salaries.

“While this might help with the abovementioned economic continuity, as well as getting buy-in from major political parties, the size of the cabinet has raised concerns over the efficiency of policy implementation,” said Jeemin Bang, associate economist at Moody’s Analytics.

“Foreign firms operating in Indonesia, or looking to enter Indonesia, will likely be concerned over the increased bureaucracy that comes with a more complex government structure,” Bang added.

Other key appointments overseeing the over $1 trillion economy include Airlangga Hartarto as coordinating minister for economic affairs, Erick Thohir as state-owned enterprises minister and Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita as industry minister. They were all part of Widodo’s cabinet.

In his first speech as president on Sunday, Prabowo urged his government against being “too complacent” about an economy that’s grown roughly 5% annually in the last decade.

“Poverty in Indonesia is still too high. Many children are still malnourished. Many people do not have good jobs. Many schools are not maintained. We have to have the courage to look at all this and solve it,” he said.

Investors will be watching how Prabowo can actually execute and deliver the priority promises within his first 100 days and “whether he can live up to his strong rethorics,” according to Lionel Priyadi, macro strategist at PT Mega Capital Sekuritas in Jakarta.

Here’s a list of the key cabinet members and their posts:

–With assistance from Faris Mokhtar, Chandra Asmara, Prima Wirayani and Soraya Permatasari.

(Updated throughout with more context, analyst comments)

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