Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS, Jakarta
The world’s rapidly changing geopolitical, economic and social landscape demands that this year’s G20 Summit be different from previous years.
The last 12 months have witnessed the Japanese triple disaster, the Middle Eastern and North African ‘Arab Spring’, nuclear-powered North Korea’s leadership succession to a 27-year-old, Western condemnation of the Iranian nuclear power program, and the shift of US military strategy to the Asia Pacific. Read more…
Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS, Jakarta
The sixth East Asia Summit (EAS) will take place on 19 November in Bali, with its newest members — the US and Russia — breathing new life into the forum.
While the Summit’s original objective of serving as a forum for dialogue on broad strategic, political and economic issues remains important, the US and Russia’s inclusion has now opened an opportunity for greater geopolitical security dialogue. Read more…
Authors: Maria Monica Wihardja and Josef Kristiadi, CSIS, Jakarta
The Indonesian cabinet reshuffle of 18 October has ended in an anti-climax.
The Indonesian people — and even their ministers — were hoping for a more effective cabinet to support Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s administration: they were instead left shocked and clueless about the criteria on which he based his decisions. Read more…
Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS, Jakarta
Indonesia has made numerous global, regional and national commitments on structural reform via its (mostly non-binding) commitments in the G20, APEC, OECD and ASEAN.
The challenge is how to translate these commitments into domestic priorities, plans and policies. Read more…
Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS, Jakarta
In his 2007 paper, ‘Microeconomic Policy Reform: Strategy for Regional Cooperation’, the late Indonesian economist Hadi Soesastro wrote that while first-generation economic reforms in East Asia have gradually opened up the economies in the region by removing border barriers, second-generation economic reforms and deeper regional cooperation are needed.
‘Economic well-being and domestic competitiveness are influenced not only by openness to trade and competition but also by the region’s regulatory and structural architecture’. Read more…
Author: Maria Wihardja, CSIS
The world is biting its fingernails in anticipation of developments in the global economy and geopolitical landscape.
The Doha Round is on life support, and the OPEC talks on 8 June to increase the world’s oil supply have broken down. Read more…
Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS, Jakarta
In mid-November 2011, Indonesia will host the Sixth East Asia Summit (EAS).
Based on the Kuala Lumpur Declaration 2005, this year’s Summit will continue to be a forum for dialogue on broad strategic, political and economic issues to promote ‘common security, common prosperity, and common stability.’ Read more…
Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS, Indonesia
This year’s BRIC Summit, to be held in mid-April in China, will mark the entry of South Africa into membership of the group.
The economies of BRICS (now with the addition of ‘S’ for South Africa) will also prepare for the G20 Summit to be held later this year. BRICS, for which the combined economy is predicted to overtake the US by 2018, is not only an emerging economic power but also an increasingly influential political power; and China, acting as a global regime maker instead of a regime taker, is leading the way. Read more…
Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS, Indonesia
The Asian Development Bank, along with Indonesian ministries, including the Trade Ministry and the National Development Planning Ministry, this month held a symposium on ‘Asia’s Development Agenda in Regional and International Fora’ and a consultation meeting on ‘Asia 2050.’ These themes are timely; despite its growth miracles, Asia continues to face development challenges, and its stake in the global economic recovery is high.
Asia’s success is not pre-ordained, according to Shigeo Katsu, a senior associate of the Centennial Group, at the Asia 2050 meeting. He suggests that the worst possible scenario for Asia by 2050 would see India and China become trapped as middle-income countries with poor institutions and governance, and growing inequality. Read more…
Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS
Indonesia has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. Illegal deforestation is currently rife, and the loss of government revenue associated with this illegality has been estimated at $US 100 million in East Kalimantan alone.
Deforestation is caused, in part, by land use changes resulting from cash-crop plantations and mining, particularly for coal in East Kalimantan. Recent increases in the rates of deforestation have occurred in three stages, and have been exacerbated by a number of policy developments and reforms. Read more…
Author: Maria Wihardja, CSIS, Jakarta
In the upcoming G20 summit in Seoul, East Asian Pacific countries must be careful not to focus narrowly on their own regional institutions and issues. Instead, they must aim to bring momentum to the global economic recovery and reforms. The agenda must resist being sidelined by current European concerns, and maintain a focus on Asian economies as they move beyond the financial crisis.
The formation of the G20 is a delayed recognition of the shifting of the global economy to the East, especially with the Chinese economy’s emerging power. The cooperation of these economies represents an opportunity for significant global growth. Read more…
Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS, Jakarta
This post looks at the interaction between economic and political institutions.
A theoretical study of a simple strategic complementary game with private and public information among partially informed agents such as central banks shows that initial fundamentals might give rise to different levels of transparency. Read more…
