The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 05/20/2010 12:09 PM | Headlines
New finance minister Agus Martowardojo pledged Thursday to continue with the reform agenda started by his predecessor, who maintained economic growth but angered some with her anti-corruption sweep and tax enforcement.
"We will continue the bureaucratic reforms that have been administered by Minister Sri Mulyani," Martowardojo told reporters Thursday at his house as quoted by Associated Press.
"In addition, we will maintain fiscal resilience and will maximize all efforts in creating a harmonious relationship between fiscal and monetary policy, so that our economic growth can be sustained."
Agus Martowardojo, CEO of state-owned Bank Mandiri - the country's largest bank - was named Wednesday to take over the Finance Ministry from Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who resigned to take a position at the World Bank.
Finance Ministry’s director general for budgeting Anny Ratnawati was named the deputy finance minister.
Outgoing Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati hailed the appointment of Agus Martowardojo as her successor Thursday, calling him “the right choice”.
Mulyani said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had picked a figure the ministry needed.
“The President is very wise as he knows exactly what must continue at the Finance Ministry and what kind of leadership it needs,” Mulyani said as quoted by kompas.com after a ceremony to mark the National Awakening Day at her office.
She said Agus was widely known as a professional with good leadership qualities and the integrity to ensure the ministry’s programs, particularly its bureaucratic reform, work well.
Mulyani called on all Finance Ministry employees to support Agus, who will be installed later on Thursday.
Economists and businessmen have also voiced support for Martowardojo, who will go from leading a national bank to managing the budget of Southeast Asia's largest economy.
"He has dedicated his knowledge as banker to maintain a good performance in managing the country's largest bank," said economist Fauzi Ichsan. "He really understands how to keep the country's rupiah and bonds stable."
Martowardojo is a career banker who successfully led a private bank before becoming CEO of Bank of Mandiri in 2005. He was reappointed just last week for a second term as CEO at the bank after reforming Mandiri's assets by slashing non-performing loans and raising the bank's profile among international investors.
His weakness may be his lack of government experience, Ichsan said, but that will be balanced by his deputy minister, Anny Ratnawati, a longtime bureaucrat who is the ministry's current director-general of budgeting.
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