RI Said to Have Great Potential to Become a New Power in the World, Luhut Indonesia Must Work Hard First

(UNTIL )

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marvest) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan admitted to receiving a whisper from Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, who is hedge fund largest in the world. Luhut said one of the world’s richest people believes Indonesia will become a developed country.

“Earlier, Ray Dalio also said that we created a forum, which also informed us that Indonesia’s current curve is very good for becoming a high-income country,” said Luhut in Nusa Dua, Bali, Tuesday (3/9/2024).

Luhut said that even so, Ray Dalio’s statement would remain a prediction without real efforts from Indonesia. He said that Indonesia must work hard to achieve the projection. “So, it depends on us, but we must be careful because our demographic bonus is until 2040,” he said. “So, I think if we all work together well, in our golden year we can at least become a high-income country,” he continued.

In a short interview release received Indonesian MediaThursday (5/9), Ray Dalio emphasized that Indonesia Has Great Potential to Become a New Power in the World. What Dalio said in this interview seemed to confirm the statement of Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut last Tuesday.

Indonesia has great potential to continue to develop as a new power in the world. The main key is increasing the nation’s productivity, and one way to do this is by investing in the education sector.

This was revealed by Dalio, who is the founder of Bridgewater Associates, in an exclusive interview received before the Second Indonesia-Africa Forum in Nusa Dua, Bali.

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“The president-elect of Indonesia is in a country that has great potential. In terms of capital formation and education and so on. He has the money and the will to invest well, to increase productivity in various ways,” Ray said.

Ray added that Indonesia could learn from what Deng Xiaoping did in China in the 1980s. At that time, Deng implemented an open door policy and reform. Those two things could create capital and new ideas and that capital could be used to invest in education.

“So it’s a combination of being on the growth curve when you have enough internal capital so you can invest well and get a productivity boost,” Ray said.

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According to Ray, who is the 124th richest person in the world, Indonesia can create special economic zones that can be laboratories for experiments in economic reform and development. These reforms include changes in the legal system and economic policies to attract investment and increase productivity.

“Of course, to reform a country as a whole. As Deng Xiaoping did in China and Nahrendra Modi did in India, is more challenging. And, of course, every successful country boils down to those two things, reform and meritocracy. You bring in foreign knowledge and talent and foreign capital, and you invest in doing those reforms,” Ray said.

According to Ray, the new President must also be able to create an environment that allows for productivity. “So, you have to have broad-based productivity. If you don’t have broad-based productivity, you have too much wealth inequality and opportunity inequality, and that causes its own problems,” Ray said. (S-1)