00:00I think the most recent development is the MSCI threatening or saying that Indonesia is at risk of being downgraded.
00:13What went wrong there?
00:15As I told you, the transparency in the market was quite big.
00:19I've told myself to the stock market management several months ago to clarify the market from this cooking practice of manipulating prices of shares, but they didn't do anything.
00:38So to me, MSCI warning is a good thing because I can write them to clear the market practice toward the better.
00:50Are you concerned about a possible downgrade?
00:53No, because improving the condition.
00:55Unless we ignore the MSCI warning until May, then we have to be concerned.
01:01But I think the government and every market regulators have conducted, have taken a proper approach to show that before May this year, we will satisfy what the MSCI wanted.
01:16So you should be okay. You should be fine.
01:18And if I think my country should be okay, we will follow, adhere to the global best practices.
01:25You're expressing confidence, but there is a real risk of being downgraded by the MSCI.
01:30Are you prepared for that?
01:31What measures are in place that could possibly mitigate the impact of a downgrade?
01:37Well, we will satisfy all of the MSCI, all of the things that MSCI wanted, including basic transparency.
01:46For me, as a minister of finance, I'm not involving too much with what's happening in the boards.
01:53But I focus to ensure that the economy is moving in the right direction.
02:04We make sure that our government spends enough money in the first quarter, second quarter, in a timely manner.
02:12And we ensure also that there's enough liquidity in the market.
02:16And we are making sure that we are improving our business climate.
02:20We have this special task force of debottlenecking where everybody, every businessman can report to us.
02:29And on a weekly basis, we have a meeting, a proceeding to ensure that the bottleneck that they are facing is removed properly.
02:39I think one year from now, we will have a different and much better business climate condition.
02:46That's enough to create a better and faster economic growth.
02:51Eventually, it will be represented on the increase on prices of shares in our capital market.
02:59We recently saw the seizure of the Matabe gold mine.
03:05And some say that perhaps a reflection of the lack of due process in Indonesia.
03:13Due process?
03:13Due process.
03:14Due process.
03:17Something like that has been occurring in our country over the last maybe 20 years or 30 years.
03:23We are improving, we are removing that bad practice in the mining industry.
03:32One of the samples is that the abolishment of the permit of the company.
03:39This is one step to make sure that we are conducting a good investment climate, a good practice in mining activities in the country.
03:49It's not like we are against mining, but we are against illegal mining.
03:55There's a lot of speculation and there's even suggestion from the likes of Citi, Citi Bank.
04:02Economist from Citi Bank?
04:03Yes.
04:03He's not a real economist.
04:05He's only a master.
04:06You should ask a PhD to answer that question.
04:10Suggesting that perhaps you will move your cap beyond 3%.
04:14Is there a chance of that happening?
04:17I'm the minister, not him.
04:19I understand fiscal policy very, very, very well.
04:24I learned from the best from everybody in the world about fiscal policy.
04:30The reason why last time we pushed, last year we pushed the deficit towards the boundary of 3%
04:37because the economy has been slowing since the beginning of the year, maybe since 2024.
04:41It was a pretty slow time by our policymaker at that time, and the economy is moving downward.
04:51We have, if you learn the economy properly, in the downturn, the government would create a contract policy to ensure that the downturn is not becoming a recession.
05:06We did that.
05:08We expanded our fiscal, we gave stimulus to the economy to ensure that the economy is returning like that, and it happened.
05:19In September, we managed to turn around in September, September, October, November, until now.
05:29So we pushed the deficit towards the boundary, but at the same time, we managed to limit the deficit, not surpass the 3% level.
05:42This is what we were successful in trading at the third round, but at the same time, we managed to the 3% level.
05:52That's the work of an expert.
05:55I don't want to, in the future, I don't want to surpass the 3% level because people like you, media, will crucify me
06:04and tell everybody that I don't know my job.
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