Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, the newly appointed presidential chief of staff, said on Friday that his new office would materialize soon, and that President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s final declaration on the matter could be issued next week.

The new office would have three deputies and its final structure would be unveiled soon, he said.

Luhut, along with Cabinet Secretary Andi Widjajanto and State Secretary Pratikno, met with Jokowi on Friday for a closed-door meeting at which Luhut explained how the office of the President would host three institutions, the newly established presidential chief of staff, the Cabinet Secretary and the State Secretary.

Luhut, a retired general and former advisor to Jokowi'€™s presidential election campaign team, was recently appointed to lead a new agency known as the office of the president.

The office has been designated to help Jokowi identify strategic issues the country is dealing with, as well as serve as a conduit for the President'€™s communications with the public and the House of Representatives.

'€œThe President has received all the ideas and, in principle, he agrees. All it needs is a Perpres [Presidential Regulation],'€ Luhut said after the meeting on Friday. '€œI believe the Perpres will be issued in the next few days.'€

He declined, however, to reveal either which sectors or which tasks he would be in charge of, nor the candidates for the deputies, saying simply that the latters'€™ task would be to help the president carry out his duties.

'€œI have already spoken to the President about the deputies. The President will later give the final say,'€ he revealed.

State Secretary Pratikno also declined to reveal the unit'€™s structure, explaining that Luhut'€™s office might have three deputies, including one who would handle strategic issues and communications. Pratikno earlier said that Luhut was expected to have three to five deputies.

According to Pratikno, the deputies did not need to come from the bureaucracy nor have a civil servant background.

'€œA person who is considered qualified [could take the job],'€ Pratikno said.

He also said that some tasks previously under the remit of the Presidential Working Unit for the Supervision and Management of Development (UKP4), which was officially disbanded on Dec. 31, would be transferred to Luhut'€™s office.

However, Andi'€™s office will also take on some of the functions of the UKP4.

Both Luhut and Pratikno affirmed that the units under Jokowi '€” Luhut'€™s office, the Cabinet Secretary and the State Secretary '€” would remain small in structure, in accordance with Jokowi'€™s calls for effective government.

'€œThere won'€™t be any overlapping; rather, [such division of tasks] will enable us to focus on each task at hand,'€ he said. '€œAnd actually, we can make a lot of savings.'€

Jokowi has instructed that government agencies must remain small so as to avoid overlapping of tasks and to revamp bureaucracy.

'€œThis means that it is not only about restructuring organizations, but also about how to fill them with qualified staff,'€ he said.

Pratikno also said that Jokowi had yet to give his final decision on whether he would need an official spokesperson.

'€œHe is still thinking about it,'€ Pratikno revealed.

Luhut had been touted as a potential member of Jokowi'€™s Cabinet but his name was dropped in favor of other candidates nominated by political parties supporting the former Jakarta governor'€™s presidential bid.

Luhut has close ties to Jokowi, having once formed a joint venture with the President.

Furniture company PT Rakabu Sejahtera, which produces wooden door frames, decks and flooring for the export market in Central Java, is a joint venture that was established in 2009 between Toba Sejahtra and Jokowi'€™s furniture flagship PT Ra-kabu.

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