Before delivering his speech in front of hundreds of people at the St. Regis Hotels Ballroom, San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, he explained that during his first visit to the United States last year, he had to cut short his visit and rush back to the country due to the forest fires, which had led to the haze disaster.
"While hastily going back, I was quoting Arnolds well-known sentence of Ill be back, then here I am right now," Jokowi said with a smile, which resulted in applause and laughter from the audience.
In his keynote speech, the president explained a number of issues, including Indonesias economic development, which has made him proud.
"While the stock market in China dropped drastically, including in the United States, and as crude oil prices have fallen, Indonesias Rupiah has remained stable. Our stock market has only decreased slightly," he described.
In fact, in the fourth quarter of 2015, Indonesias gross domestic product (GDP) could reach 5.03 percent, beating the forecast of some financial institutions.
Such progress, Jokowi said, was probably a result of Indonesians hard work, such as political consolidation, cabinet reshuffle, which required more technocrats and professionals, as well as a build-up of infrastructure.
"In general I am quite optimistic that Indonesia has reached a level of economic stabilization," Jokowi affirmed.
However, many improvements are still needed to support Indonesias economy, such as the simplification and revamping of business licensing, overlapping regulations, including the regulation of negative investment list (DNI).
Indonesia is continuing to make improvements and reforms, which are considered supply side reforms.
This reform concept was first introduced by Ronald Reagan during his term as the Governor of California, along with the then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who imposed economic deregulation in the United Kingdom, which was later done in the United States as well.
"Today, we must enforce the same policy in emerging markets, which aim to impart freedom to business and industry from excessive regulations," President Jokowi stated.
Since the beginning of this year, he said, the global economy has been experiencing a slowdown.
Emerging markets slowdown has led to the concern that it will have an impact on advanced economies.
Regarding the incident, Jokowi considered that the World Bank had to provide the required liquidity.
Meanwhile, the government and companies around the world should immediately take concrete and fundamental actions.
Structural reform and long term investments, which were not focused on short term populist measures, should be made.
"And it takes time because there is no shortcut. We face a different era, compared with the era of Reagan and Thatcher," Jokowi noted.
At that time, Reagan and Thatcher faced challenges on deflation and excessive taxation.
"Today the mistake is the lack of tax collection, particularly in the emerging markets. In many countries, their bad fiscal policies are causing the country to lose its source of future investment and infrastructure," Jokowi stated.
Reported by Hanni Sofia S
(INE)
EDITED BY INE
(T.Y013/A/KR-BSR/A014)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
