JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati received the congratulations of Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday after returning from the World Government Summit in Dubai, where she won the “Best Minister” award.
Indrawati is the third recipient of the award, after Senegal’s Minister of Health and Social Action Awa Marie Coll-Seck in 2017 and Australian Minister for the Environment Greg Hunt in 2016.
Widodo was full of praise for Sri Mulyani at a Cabinet meeting at the State Palace.
“First of all, I would like to congratulate Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati who has been awarded as the best minister — the only best minister in the world,” Widodo said, walking over to Indrawati to shake her hand.
“This acknowledgment shows that management of our macroeconomic, fiscal, and state budget is on the right track, prudent and very effective,” Widodo told journalists earlier in the day at the Foreign Ministry.
Widodo’s administration has set an economic growth target of 5.4 percent in 2018.
Vice Chairman of the National Economic and Industry Committee Arif Budimanta congratulated Indrawati on her award and told Arab News that it also served as a challenge to ensure that Indonesia’s development would result in the creation of more jobs for the country’s youth.
Between 2025 and 2035, Indonesia’s young, working-age demographic is expected to outstrip the number of children and the elderly.
“We should be able to work harder to address inequality and reduce the development gap between the western and eastern regions of the country,” Budimanta added.
Enny Sri Hartati, an economist and director of Jakarta-based think tank, the Institute for the Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) said that Indrawati’s reform efforts had not been wholly successful.
“Our fiscal sector in the past three years has been in decline and our tax ratio has been low, at around 10 percent,” she told Arab News.
Enny acknowledged the reforms that Indrawati has introduced but stressed that what outcomes are what matter, not just efforts.
According to data from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, at less than 11 percent, Indonesia has one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in Southeast Asia and emerging economies. Neighboring countries Thailand and Malaysia are at around 17 percent and 15 percent respectively.
Widodo brought Indrawati back to Jakarta as finance minister in July 2016 in his second cabinet reshuffle. She had served the same role under Widodo’s predecessor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono from 2005 to 2010, before becoming managing director of the World Bank Group.
Indrawati has previously received numerous global awards for her efforts, including Best Finance Minister in 2006 from Euromoney, and Best Finance Minister in Asia on the sidelines of the World Bank and IMF Annual Meeting in Singapore that same year.
She is also a regular on the Forbes’ list of Most Powerful Women in the World — she was ranked 37th in 2016 having peaked at 23rd in 2008.
In an online video message posted on Sunday, Indrawati said she dedicated the award to all Indonesians, including the 78,164 finance ministry officers whom she said had worked hard to manage the country’s finances with integrity and commitment.
“The Finance Ministry has launched various policy-reform efforts aimed to (create) a fiscal policy toward sustainable and inclusive development,” she said in the video.
‘World’s Best Minister’ Sri Mulyani Indrawati returns to Indonesia to hero’s welcome
‘World’s Best Minister’ Sri Mulyani Indrawati returns to Indonesia to hero’s welcome
Trump says Australia will grant asylum to Iran women footballers
- Presenter on Iranian state TV had branded the players “wartime traitors” after they stood motionless during the anthem
MIAMI: US President Donald Trump said Monday that Australia had agreed to grant asylum to some of Iran’s visiting women’s football team, amid fears they could face retaliation back home for not singing the national anthem before a match.
The gesture ahead of the team’s Asian Cup match against South Korea last week was seen by many as an act of defiance against the Islamic republic just two days after the United States and Israel attacked it.
“I just spoke to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, of Australia, concerning the Iranian National Women’s Soccer Team. He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of,” Trump said Monday on his Truth Social network, less than two hours after an initial post urging Australia to take them in.
Trump added that “some, however, feel they must go back because they are worried about the safety of their families, including threats to those family members if they don’t return.”
There was no immediate comment from the Australian government, which has so far declined to say whether it could offer the players asylum.
Asked about their case on Sunday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia “stands in solidarity” with the people of Iran.
The son of Iran’s late shah, US-based Reza Pahlavi, warned on Monday that the refusal to sing the anthem could have “dire consequences,” and urged Australia to offer the team protection.
Trump then weighed in, pressing Albanese to “give ASYLUM” to the team and adding: “The US will take them if you won’t.”
“Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed,” the US leader said on Truth Social.
Pahlavi, who has not returned to Iran since before the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the monarchy, has billed himself as the man to lead a democratic transition to a secular Iran as the theocratic regime fights to survive.
Politicians, human rights activists and even “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling have also called for the team to be offered official protection.
“Please, protect these young women,” Rowling said in a post on social media.
‘Save our girls’
A presenter on Iranian state TV had branded the players “wartime traitors” after they stood motionless during the anthem before their match against South Korea.
In subsequent games, the players saluted and sang.
Crowds gathered outside the Gold Coast stadium where the side played their last match over the weekend, banging drums and shouting “regime change for Iran.”
They then surrounded the Iranian team bus, chanting “let them go” and “save our girls.”
On Monday, an AFP journalist saw members of the team speaking on phones from their balcony of their hotel.
Asked about the possibility of granted asylum, a spokesperson for Australia’s Home Affairs department told AFP earlier it “cannot comment on the circumstances of individuals.”
Amnesty International campaigner Zaki Haidari said they faced persecution, or worse, if they were sent home.
“Some of these team members probably have had their families already threatened,” Haidari told AFP.
“Them going back... who knows what sort of punishment they will receive?“
Despite being heavily monitored, the side would have a “small window of opportunity” to seek asylum at the airport, he said.
Iran’s embassy in Australia did not respond to a request for comment.
