Divas fix Indonesian finances

JAKARTA – They’re called the three divas but the three most powerful women in Indonesia are anything but prima donnas.

They’re economists who together are setting Southeast Asia’s biggest economy on track for its fastest growth in 11 years. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Trade Minister Mari Pangestu, and the central bank’s Senior Deputy Governor Miranda Goeltom form an unusual clique in a country where the establishment is dominated by men.”We know each other very well.The chemistry is always very good between the three of us,” said Indrawati, a former International Monetary Fund director, in a recent interview with Reuters.While the three play golf and do lunch together, Indrawati said she values the fact she can discuss economics with the other two, particularly given the isolated nature of her job.”It’s something we can enjoyably share,” she said.”Being a minister of finance you feel really lonely and alone.If you are mingling too closely with the business community they will accuse you of being too close, and if you are mingling with the political parties they think you are busy politicking.I have to keep a distance.”Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, has had relatively few high-profile women in its government.Its first female president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, owed her position in part to her pedigree, as her father Sukarno was the independent nation’s first leader.But while Sukarnoputri, a former housewife, kept a low profile, the three divas are familiar faces on the IMF, World Bank, and international trade circuit – though some nationalists say they are too cosy with these institutions.In contrast to many of her tight-lipped foreign counterparts, central banker Goeltom, 58, is regularly quoted in the media, most recently on the economic impact of high oil prices.She often speaks in public, and is famously unpunctual – a trait that saved her life in 2003 when she was stuck in traffic and arrived late for lunch at Jakarta’s Marriott hotel, missing a bomb attack by minutes.Now Goeltom and central bank governor Burhanuddin Abdullah are in the limelight again as economists await further easing.The benchmark interest rate has fallen to 8,25 per cent from a high of 12,75 per cent in April 2006 after 13 rate cuts, as inflation has eased.The cut in rates has boosted domestic consumption, spurring economic growth which is set to hit 6,3 per cent this year.Exports are bouncing back, and foreign direct investment, which faltered on worries about corruption, red tape and legal uncertainty, is close to its 2000 record of US$9,86 billion.One reason for the recovery, Indrawati says, is because reforms are starting to have an effect.President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general, was elected in 2004 on the back of promises to boost growth, create jobs, and tackle graft in a country which year after year ranks among the most corrupt.When Indrawati, 45, was appointed finance minister, she embarked on a clean-up of Indonesia’s notoriously corrupt tax and customs departments in a bid to raise state revenues.The former academic, whose PhD was on how men and women respond to tax policies, has a tough job ahead of her as only one Indonesian in 170 pays tax.For years, tax bills were often settled by greasing palms, but now it’s getting harder for the well-heeled to keep the tax office at bay.Indrawati has replaced corrupt officials and raised salaries for staff so they are not tempted to steal or solicit bribes.Her officers are investigating firms which deliberately understate their profits in order to pay less tax, and are tracking down wealthy lawyers, bankers, property owners – even platinum cardholders – many of whom get a nasty shock when officials phone or drop by to check up on them.Restoring public trust in government departments and institutions has become an “obsession” for Indrawati, who says she feels she has at least inspired “a positive and contagious disease, a reform fever” among many tax and customs bureaucrats.While Indrawati tackles tax issues, Trade Minister Pangestu wants to raise the profile of Indonesia’s exports.”Where would the world be without Indonesia?” joked Pangestu recently, pointing out that it makes a substantial portion of the world’s zips, Barbie dolls, and false eyelashes.Pangestu is a rare breed in the cabinet, not just because she’s female, but because she’s the only ethnic Chinese.Nampa-ReutersFinance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Trade Minister Mari Pangestu, and the central bank’s Senior Deputy Governor Miranda Goeltom form an unusual clique in a country where the establishment is dominated by men.”We know each other very well.The chemistry is always very good between the three of us,” said Indrawati, a former International Monetary Fund director, in a recent interview with Reuters.While the three play golf and do lunch together, Indrawati said she values the fact she can discuss economics with the other two, particularly given the isolated nature of her job.”It’s something we can enjoyably share,” she said.”Being a minister of finance you feel really lonely and alone.If you are mingling too closely with the business community they will accuse you of being too close, and if you are mingling with the political parties they think you are busy politicking.I have to keep a distance.”Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, has had relatively few high-profile women in its government.Its first female president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, owed her position in part to her pedigree, as her father Sukarno was the independent nation’s first leader.But while Sukarnoputri, a former housewife, kept a low profile, the three divas are familiar faces on the IMF, World Bank, and international trade circuit – though some nationalists say they are too cosy with these institutions.In contrast to many of her tight-lipped foreign counterparts, central banker Goeltom, 58, is regularly quoted in the media, most recently on the economic impact of high oil prices.She often speaks in public, and is famously unpunctual – a trait that saved her life in 2003 when she was stuck in traffic and arrived late for lunch at Jakarta’s Marriott hotel, missing a bomb attack by minutes.Now Goeltom and central bank governor Burhanuddin Abdullah are in the limelight again as economists await further easing.The benchmark interest rate has fallen to 8,25 per cent from a high of 12,75 per cent in April 2006 after 13 rate cuts, as inflation has eased.The cut in rates has boosted domestic consumption, spurring economic growth which is set to hit 6,3 per cent this year.Exports are bouncing back, and foreign direct investment, which faltered on worries about corruption, red tape and legal uncertainty, is close to its 2000 record of US$9,86 billion.One reason for the recovery, Indrawati says, is because reforms are starting to have an effect.President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general, was elected in 2004 on the back of promises to boost growth, create jobs, and tackle graft in a country which year after year ranks among the most corrupt.When Indrawati, 45, was appointed finance minister, she embarked on a clean-up of Indonesia’s notoriously corrupt tax and customs departments in a bid to raise state revenues.The former academic, whose PhD was on how men and women respond to tax policies, has a tough job ahead of her as only one Indonesian in 170 pays tax.For years, tax bills were often settled by greasing palms, but now it’s getting harder for the well-heeled to keep the tax office at bay.Indrawati has replaced corrupt officials and raised salaries for staff so they are not tempted to steal or solicit bribes.Her officers are investigating firms which deliberately understate their profits in order to pay less tax, and are tracking down wealthy lawyers, bankers, property owners – even platinum cardholders – many of whom get a nasty shock when officials phone or drop by to check up on them.Restoring public trust in government departments and institutions has become an “obsession” for Indrawati, who says she feels she has at least inspired “a positive and contagious diseas
e, a reform fever” among many tax and customs bureaucrats.While Indrawati tackles tax issues, Trade Minister Pangestu wants to raise the profile of Indonesia’s exports.”Where would the world be without Indonesia?” joked Pangestu recently, pointing out that it makes a substantial portion of the world’s zips, Barbie dolls, and false eyelashes.Pangestu is a rare breed in the cabinet, not just because she’s female, but because she’s the only ethnic Chinese.Nampa-Reuters