"This is where we actually see Indonesia's role as very important. We want to make the Indonesian Presidency not only benefit the 20 largest economies, but also have an impact on other countries, especially developing countries," Director General of Information and Public Diplomacy (IDP) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Teuku Faizasyah said at the ‘Social Activity of the G20 Presidency of Indonesia's Energy Transition Priority Sector,’ held online on Friday.
Therefore, Indonesia has become very active in inviting representatives of developing countries to participate in G20 discussions, he added.
"Of course, as the G20 Presidency, Indonesia has the flexibility to set big themes," Faizasyah remarked.
Specifically, themes that provide benefits not only to the global community, but are in the national interests of Indonesia.
Therefore, the Indonesian G20 Presidency has chosen ‘Recover Together, Recover Stronger’ as its theme.
The three main priorities of Indonesia's G20 Presidency are global health architecture, digital-based economic transformation, and energy transition. These priorities are being used to set a new discussion agenda (flagship agenda) in the Working Group (WG) and Engagement Group (EG) Sherpa Track.
“If we go back to 1999, the G20 was established to respond to the economic crisis facing the world. The economic crisis occurred because of the global financial crisis at that time,” Faizasyah noted.
By building a spirit of cooperation and collective leadership, the G20 offered a solution to the financial crisis at the time.
“Then, we followed this forum in 2008 and 2009 due to the continuation of the financial crisis, the status of G20 has been upgraded to a meeting at the level of heads of government/state," he pointed out.
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This shows that the G20 is truly an economic forum for addressing various global economic challenges, he said.
"Especially at this time, after two years, we have felt a very heavy impact due to the COVID-19 pandemic," Faizasyah added.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a slowdown in economic growth worldwide and created economic uncertainty.
Therefore, the momentum of the Indonesian Presidency provides a privilege.
"We understand that COVID-19 has caused a multidimensional crisis that started from a crisis in the health sector, then became an economic crisis, and in the end became a prolonged social crisis," Faizasyah said.
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Reporter: Azis Kurmala
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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