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New club `huge benefits' for RI
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono could not hide his pride as the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies acknowledged the fact that Indonesia was one of the few economies - including China and India - which came through the global economic crisis with positive economic growth
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resident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono could not hide his pride as the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies acknowledged the fact that Indonesia was one of the few economies - including China and India - which came through the global economic crisis with positive economic growth.
Indonesia managed to combine the economic policies of the G20 following its Washington summit in November 2008 and London summit in April 2008 with its own fiscal discipline and sensible domestic economic policies.
"We have managed to grow by 4.5 percent so far *this year* while most other countries have experienced negative growth," the President told Indonesian journalists who traveled with him to the United States.
Hosted by US President Barack Obama, the G20 summit wrapped up here Friday (Saturday Jakarta time) and pledged to implement a number of revolutionary breakthroughs in policies in an effort to maintain the recovery of the global economy and prevent new crises from taking place again, with Indonesia saying that the results will help strengthen its resilience in the face of the global economic downturn.
President Yudhoyono praised the summit decision to merge the club of the world's eight largest economies (G8) with the G20. "It is in line with Indonesia's expectation that the G20 becomes a permanent institution and it is good. Because if only G7, or G8, then this only represents industrialized countries, which are mostly from Europe. Only one is from Asia, that is Japan," said the President.
Indonesia, Yudhoyono said, would also benefit from tighter international financial standards and disciplines, which will reduce the negative impacts of the problems of the global financial system on the country's domestic economy.
The summit has been attended by leaders of the world's 20 largest economies namely: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK, the US and the EU.
The G20 countries represent 85 percent of the global economy, including major developed and developing nations.
The United States has insisted on the need for the world to have balanced global growth with a concerted effort to tackle the issue of trade imbalances. The US has experienced a growing trade deficit with its major trade partners, especially with China.
President Yudhoyono agreed that such imbalances "could become a source of global instability that might lead to *further* financial crises".
The summit leaders also made commitments to increasing share quota and voting power for dynamic emerging markets, especially China, by at least 5 percent in the IMF and 3 percent in the World Bank. The shift of shares in the IMF, for instance, has increased the quota share for developing nations up to 48 percent compared to 52 percent for developed nations.
Indonesia welcomed the change in share quota and voting power in both global financial institutions, with Finance Minister Sri Mulyani saying the shift would give a greater say for the developing world.
