Indrawati being selected again to serve as finance minister this time signifies her ministerial presence in three consecutive government periods, starting in Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's era, to Joko Widodo, and now Prabowo Subianto.
The sustained trust by the country's leader in Indrawati is not surprising, considering her track record in the economic field.
Indrawati, born in Tanjung Karang, Lampung, on August 26, 1962, has been consistently working in the economic field since her undergraduate years.
Education
After graduating from public high school SMA Negeri 3 Semarang, Central Java, Indrawati continued her education at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Indonesia (UI). She graduated in 1986.
Four years later, she earned a Master of Science (M.Sc) in Policy Economics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the United States.
Indrawati continued her education at the same campus and earned her doctorate in 1992.
Career journey
Indrawati, familiarly known as Ani, started her career as a lecturer and researcher. She was a teaching assistant at the UI Faculty of Economics (1985-1986) and an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (1990-1992).
She then became an active economic observer as she served as head of the UI Institute for Economic and Social Research (LPEM).
Her career in the public sector began when she became the expert staff for policy analysis at the National Development Planning Ministry (Bappenas) in 1994-1995.
In 1998, Indrawati joined the assistance team of the Minister of Finance in handling finance and monetary matters.
Before securing a ministerial position in Indonesia, she was elected as executive director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) representing 12 countries in Southeast Asia in 2002.
Two years later, on October 21, 2004, Indrawati was given a mandate by Indonesia's sixth president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to serve as minister of state for national development planning and head of Bappenas in his United Indonesia Cabinet.
A year later, Indrawati was assigned the role of minister of finance, replacing Jusuf Anwar due to the cabinet reshuffle. She was Yudhoyono's finance minister until May 2010.
During her tenure as finance minister in the Yudhoyono era, Indrawati made several achievements, including the reform of the Ministry of Finance, reduction in borrowing costs, and debt management.
Indrawati's achievements made her the recipient of the best Minister of Finance awards in 2006, one of which was conferred by Euromoney while the other was bestowed by the Emerging Markets Forum for Asia.
She was also declared the 23rd most influential woman in the world by Forbes in 2008 and the 2nd most influential woman in Indonesia by Globe Asia magazine in October 2007.
Based on Indrawati's capabilities, Yudhoyono assigned her to serve as acting coordinating minister for economic affairs as her predecessor, Boediono, at that time came to serve as governor of Bank Indonesia (BI).
After concluding her term as finance minister in Yudhoyono's government, Indrawati began her global-level career as she was appointed the World Bank's managing director. She is the first Indonesian to hold this position.
In 2016, or the third year of Joko Widodo's first administration, Indrawati was called back to occupy the position of finance minister again.
Akin to when she served in the Yudhoyono era, she also bagged several awards during the Widodo era, including the "Best Minister in the World" in February 2018 in Dubai and "Finance Minister of the Year - East Asia Pacific" from Global Markets in October 2018.
Indrawati was also named the Best Minister of Finance in the Asia Pacific thrice in a row (2017-2019) by FinanceAsia magazine.
In August 2019, she was elected chair of the Association of Indonesian Islamic Economic Experts for the 2019-2023 period. In October of the same year, Indrawati was entrusted again to serve as finance minister during Widodo's second term.
She was also named the Best Finance Minister in Asia Pacific for handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by Global Markets.
Her ability to manage the state budget during the pandemic was reflected in the acceleration of fiscal consolidation.
Under her leadership, the state budget deficit was reduced to below three percent within two years after briefly touching six percent in the first year of the pandemic.
Subsequently, she was elected co-chair of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action and received the Distinguished Leadership and Service Award in 2021.
At the end of 2023, Indrawati received an honorary Honoris Causa Doctor of Laws from the Australian National University for her contributions to economic development in Indonesia and the world.
Given her track record, Indrawati is trusted by the international community, as was reflected in the appreciation of the rupiah last week after the confirmed information of her joining the Prabowo cabinet.
Indrawati's presence in the current cabinet for the next five years is expected to maintain Indonesia's fiscal stability.
Translator: Imamatul S, Kenzu
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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