Country Profile
From The Report: Indonesia 2018
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In a fast-changing political landscape, 2018 will be a key year for President Joko Widodo to take advantage of his high popularity ratings, majority in Parliament and consolidated Cabinet to accelerate the implementation of his administration’s strategic goals, which include infrastructure development, reducing bureaucracy and increasing transparency. In terms of greater regional involvement, the country remains ASEAN’s largest member and an increasingly influential one. In recent years Indonesia has continued strengthening its diplomatic relations with neighbouring countries, while also boosting long-term cooperation with Japan, China and South Korea.

This chapter contains an interview with President Joko Widodo; and viewpoints from Xi Jinping, President of China; and Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

National goals: The administration continues enacting major reforms
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While the Republic of Indonesia is just over seven decades old in its current form, the South-east Asian nation of more than 17,000 islands has a much longer history under other names. The name Indonesia was first used in 1850 by British anthropologist James Richardson Logan in referring to the extensive group of islands that was known at the time as the Indian or Malay Archipelago. HISTORY: Archaeological evidence indicates that the ancestors of modern humans lived on the archipelago as…

Interview

Balanced growth: President Joko Widodo, on opening up the economy, cultivating skills for the digital age and supporting equitable development
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Interview: President Joko Widodo What are the government’s main priorities to make Indonesia more competitive? JOKO WIDODO: Our focus remains on building infrastructure and implementing bureaucratic reforms, particularly by simplifying business processes. We want a more open and competitive economy. With this in mind, we recently removed several industries from the negative investment list, and we plan to remove more. We have also launched the 16th economic policy package, which aims to further…

Analysis

Building blocs: With the 2019 elections on the horizon, the country remains committed to strengthening diplomatic and trade relations
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One of the world’s largest democracies, with a population of around 259m spread across some 17,000 islands, Indonesia today faces some complex political challenges. Home to dozens of different ethnicities, several major religions and hundreds of languages and dialects, governance has long required a balancing of centralising and decentralising political forces. It has also required the accommodation of uniform ideas of citizenship and religion with the multi-cultural and multi-faith realities…

Viewpoint

Looking back, to the future: Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, on cooperation between the two countries, then and now
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Viewpoint: Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Indonesia and the Netherlands are strategic partners in a future-oriented relationship. This is no surprise, given our shared history and interest in each other. The foundations of our relationship are deep and go right back to the late 16th century, when a small Dutch merchant fleet landed at Banten, not far from modern-day Jakarta. It went from trade, to administration, to colonisation, all the way to where we are today: two vibrant…

Analysis

On the road: China’s One Belt, One Road initiative is reshaping South-east Asia
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Hailed by Chinese President Xi Jinping as “the project of the century”, the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative promises to radically transform a vast swathe of the world’s trade and transport infrastructure. In doing so, it may also transform the way Asia does business with the world, and the way the world does business with Asia. HISTORICAL PRECEDENT: While a new idea, OBOR also harkens back to medieval times, when the Silk Road flowed between East and West. The Silk Road was a…