Indonesia's Strategic Role in The G20 : Expert Perspectives

📖 The Scoop

For the first time, Indonesia has held the presidency of the G20, a forum formed to find joint solutions to global economic conditions. This forum, which represents 80% of the world economy, 75% of international trade, and two-thirds of the world's population, certainly determines the direction of world economic policy. Indonesia as the only representative country from ASEAN which is a member of the G20 as well as a developing country can play a role in encouraging and determining the direction of discussion in the interests of developing countries. In addition, Indonesia has the opportunity to encourage the world's collective efforts to realize policies that can accelerate global economic recovery inclusively and sustainably. Important agendas related to national interests that cannot be separated from global economic governance must also be voiced.

The big theme of the 2022 G20 Indonesia Presidency is "Recover Together, Recover Stronger", this theme was translated into various issues in two tracks, namely the Sherpa track and the financial track. As the title of the book, namely "INDONESIA'S STRATEGIC ROLE IN THE G20 ACCORDING TO THE VIEWS OF EXPERTS" this book discusses in detail how Indonesia's strategic role in each of the issues in the sherpa track and financial track. This book raises several issues in the Sherpa Track such as agriculture and food security, energy transition, environmental and climate sustainability, and development issues such as inequality, gender, digital economy, trade, and investment. In addition, there are issues in the Financial Track that are written in this book, namely the issue of debt challenges in countries, especially developing countries, cyber risk, financial inclusion and scarring effects, and exit strategies to recover and recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This book is the result of a real contribution of economists' ideas on various topics, especially the Indonesian economy, and was prepared in preparation for the G-20 Summit to be held in Bali in November. The diversity of backgrounds of the authors provides a new color and enriches the prospects in presenting leading thinkers to unravel Indonesia's economic problems.

As is well known, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a scarring effect on the Indonesian economy, resulting in an increase in unemployment, poverty, and inequality and has caused an economic slowdown. Some of the most impactful sectors are the accommodation and transportation sector, the tourism sector, to Small and Medium Enterprise (SME/UMKM). Even developing countries are expected to suffer more injuries than countries with advanced economies. More serious efforts are needed to support inclusive, fair, and sustainable growth.

The policy choices of developed countries to restore the domestic economy created new worries for the world. This is because developing countries have a limited ability to provide policy support which is the factor behind the relatively slower recovery compared to developed countries. Pandemic recovery is proceeding unevenly in each country requiring a different exit strategy, depending on the economic structure, quality of available resources, and governance in making supportive policies. It is very important for all countries to understand the problems facing the world and each country's policy choices for exiting and recovering from a pandemic, not just G20 members.

Therefore, Indonesia's presidency at the G20 Summit in 2022 is crucial in overcoming this problem, because the G20 countries with the world's largest economic power must be the prime mover to help developing countries both get out of the pandemic crisis trap and face uncertainty due to various social, economic problems. and politics. The main agenda of the G20 meeting is to encourage cooperation to create an inclusive, strong and sustainable world economic governance. Several agendas that can be agreed on globally such as climate change and green economy, transformation towards digitalization of the economy, global food security and precautionary recovery policies so as not to add to global problems. There must be an understanding from all G20 members that there are problems and solutions that are unique in nature because of the different social, political, economic strengths and challenges in each country.

Actually, the concept of green economy is not a new concept. However, recently the world has only recently realized the importance of transforming the global economic approach so that it becomes sustainable. The G20 Forum is a kind of declarator again to encourage the implementation of this concept at the global level. Moreover, G20 countries contribute 80 percent of global carbon emissions and therefore G20 countries must show their seriousness to reduce global carbon by implementing various policies that support carbon reduction efforts.

In addition, digital transformation is also a priority agenda in the G20 forum. The Covid-19 pandemic, which has escalated the acceleration of digital transformation, has encouraged the adoption of digital technology by economic actors. During the pandemic, technology has opened up space for online marketplaces and services that are increasingly needed. Even digital businesses run by women entrepreneurs in all developing G20 countries have significantly expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. The digital-based economy continues to grow and is believed to be one of the drivers of future economic growth despite being faced with various challenges.

Even in the issue of world trade, Indonesia needs to voice the importance of reviewing the direction and management of world trade after the Covid-19 pandemic in the G20 forum. The G20 countries need to support a balance between the conventional principles of open trade and the needs of each country to achieve a stronger and more sustainable long-term economic recovery.

There are still many other roles for Indonesia in voicing various issues at the G20 forum, so what is Indonesia's other role in promoting an inclusive and collaborative post-pandemic economic recovery for G20 countries and others?

Genre: Business & Economics / Development / Economic Development (fancy, right?)