"I have to admit when I heard President Joko Widodo`s remarks, I thought we should go home because we would not be able to give a speech as good as Joko Widodo`s," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said jokingly at the 2018 IMF-WB Meeting General Assembly here Friday.
Kim also praised the Indonesian government`s preparations in organizing the 2018 IMF-WB Annual Meeting. The thorough preparation was carried out amid Indonesia`s difficulties in facing the earthquake and tsunami disasters in Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara) and Central Sulawesi.
"We firmly stand with Indonesia. We fully support the government and the people of Indonesia," Kim said.
In his remarks, Kim reminded countries across the world to increase attention to the quality of human resources and human capital in order to create a prosperous life for all people.
The World Bank launched the Human Capital Index at the 2018 IMF-WB Annual Meeting.
The index, Kim said, broadly focuses on life sustainability parameters that describe the probability of survival at the welfare level. In addition, there are also educational parameters that measure the potential time for a child to get educational facilities, as well as health parameters.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde also appreciated President Joko Widodo`s presentation regarding the condition of the world economy.
"I also thank the president for delivering a very good speech. We were not successful in conveying the same thing," Lagarde said with a laugh.
In particular, she also thanked the Organizing Committee Chair of the IMF-WB Annual Meeting, Luhut Panjaitan, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani, and BI Governor Perry Warjiyo for their extraordinary hospitality.
Lagarde lauded Indonesia`s economic performance, which she said was impressive in recent years. Some impressive domestic economic indicators include alleviation of poverty and growth.
When opening the general session of the 2018 IMF-World Bank Annual Meeting, Jokowi compared the current world conditions with a TV series, Game of Thrones.
The president said relations among developed economies seemed to be broken.
"The low cooperation and coordination have led to many problems such as an increase in crude oil prices and currency dynamics," he said.
In the Game of Thrones series, Jokowi said, there were a number of great houses or groups that controlled several regions and great families who fiercely fought with each other to take control of the Iron Throne.
Overall, the series illustrates the struggle for power between great houses, in which they want to win by bringing down others.
"However, when the great houses were busy fighting they were not aware that there was a big threat from the North, that is, the Evil Winter people who wanted to destroy and enclose the world with ice and destruction," Jokowi said.
With that threat, they finally realized that it was not important who won the competition, but it was better to gather strength to defeat the Evil Winter people so that global disasters would not occur, and the world would not be in ruins, he added.
Reporting by Indra Arief Pribadi
Editing by Libertina W Ambari, Yoseph Haryadi
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Suharto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
