Like every major economy, China does use industrial policy, and its subsidies have mattered. But subsidies are no longer the most convincing explanation for Chinese firms’ growing competitiveness.

For Indonesia’s new financial hub to become a global powerhouse rather than an ambitious policy fantasy, the nation must offer investors what matters most: unyielding legal certainty.

The PLN scandal was not an isolated event, but rather the tip of an iceberg of systematic kickbacks and case-brokering spanning the country's largest financial scandals.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) issues have once again surged to the forefront of Indonesia's political and social discourse. Two recent, overlapping developments warrant close examination: the formal classification of the "spread of LGBTQ culture" as a nonmilitary threat under the national defense policy, and a concerted legislative push to introduce criminal sanctions targeting LGBTQ people and advocacy.

As Indonesia leaps blindly into a world-first B50 biodiesel mandate, the Prabowo administration’s high-stakes gamble for energy independence risks triggering domestic supply crunches, market instability and environmental fallout.

Blue carbon involves more than just counting carbon. It requires governance, finance, policy and practice. Ultimately, success hinges on people and their skills.

As two BRICS giants vie to build Indonesia’s first spaceport, Jakarta stands at a crossroads: it must swiftly finalize its regulatory framework and secure vital technology transfers to transform its equatorial advantage into sovereign spacefaring power.

As the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences convenes in Jakarta, the Asian Catholic Church faces a historic opportunity to turn the ideals of interfaith harmony and digital-age human dignity into a concrete regional roadmap for social justice.

As the boundaries that once separated sectors become blurred, prosperity increasingly depends on how economies build the ecosystems that sustain technological progress and nurture new productive capacity.

The issue has evolved from a purely humanitarian concern into one of information credibility and international diplomacy.

While President Prabowo’s high-profile global engagement boosts Indonesia’s visibility, relying on personal charisma over institutional diplomacy risks undermining the long-term credibility of the nation's foreign policy.

Fourteen months after President Prabowo Subianto unveiled the Red and White Cooperatives (KDMP) program as a vehicle for rural economic empowerment, the initiative increasingly resembles not a grassroots cooperative movement but a large-scale fiscal and governance experiment whose long-term sustainability remains uncertain.

Defined by controversial refereeing, political tensions and record-breaking scoring, the just-concluded 2026 World Cup proved to be as compelling off the pitch as it was on it.

The lesson here is about strategy: superior firepower can fail against an adversary built to survive.

How Indonesia can move from celebrating a flagship anti-poverty program to actually finding out whether it works.

Faced with a plummeting rupiah and shifting global markets, Indonesia must halt its erratic policymaking and institutional erosion before it permanently loses the vital game of investor confidence.

Some institutional failures unfold not through scandal but procedure, with acts of sabotage dressed up in the language of good-faith inquiry and accountability.

As the TNI swaps rigid seniority for an ill-defined model of "meritocracy," the rhetoric of professional advancement increasingly serves as a convenient cover for dynastic privilege and political patronage.

Indonesia will never defeat corruption by simply locking up individual officials; it must dismantle the resilient, invisible networks that keep the system alive.

For much of the past week, Indonesia's two most powerful law enforcement institutions, the National Police and the Attorney General's Office (AGO), appeared locked in open confrontation, complete with dueling corruption probes and troops guarding a prosecutor's house. That confrontation now looks to be ending in retreat rather than resolution.

This is not a time to let things slide, also because the stable outlook from S&P Global comes with the “expectation that the government continues to view its 3 percent annual deficit ceiling as an important policy anchor.”

Five years of catastrophic failure make it undeniably clear: ASEAN must finally abandon its toothless "Five-Point Consensus" and expel Myanmar’s junta to save its own collapsing institutional credibility.

The upcoming leadership transition at Nahdlatul Ulama is not just an internal election; it is a high-stakes contest that will shape the future of global Islam, democratic resilience and Indonesia's trajectory toward 2029.

As we race from B50 toward a B60 biodiesel mandate, the nation must ensure its quest for energy sovereignty is backed by logistical readiness and social equity rather than just political ambition.

As Indonesia builds its new capital from scratch, China’s "city of the future" offers a powerful blueprint for turning ambitious green dreams into a sustainable urban reality.

ICA-CEPA offers Indonesia a source of resilience and strategic autonomy in a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty, supply chain disruption and economic fragmentation.

Indonesia's position in the World Competitiveness Ranking (WCR) continued its downward trend in 2026, falling eight places to 48th out of 70 economies, according to the World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) 2026 published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in June. The ranking evaluates 70 economies using global, regional and national data, alongside surveys of senior executives. Indonesia's latest decline highlights persistent structural weaknesses and growing fiscal pressures.