By: Ratna Sari Dewi
Indonesia has entered a new chapter in managing state assets with the launch of the Daya Anagata Nusantara Investment Management Agency (Danantara). This agency is not just an administrative entity, but a manifestation of the government’s long-term vision to make state assets the main driver of national economic growth. Amid increasingly complex global challenges, Danantara is present as an innovative and structured solution to consolidate, optimize, and invest state assets to drive national progress.
Danantara’s main function is to consolidate the management of BUMN assets, which number 844 entities from various sectors. This includes not only the parent company, but also subsidiaries, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren that have been separated and often run without synergy. By being consolidated in one container, Danantara has a great opportunity to create governance efficiency and open up large-scale investment opportunities strategically. This step also answers the old challenges of overlapping authority, investment inefficiency, and the potential of state assets that have not been optimally utilized.
The presence of Danantara provides a more agile management space for state assets and is no longer tied to the state spending mechanism in the State Budget (APBN). In other words, state assets are separated from fiscal financing, then managed professionally to generate added economic value. This is important, considering that the potential for state assets is very large but has not been utilized productively. President Prabowo Subianto emphasized that Danantara’s wealth could even reach USD 1 trillion if managed with a good, transparent, and accountable system. This claim is not a figment of the imagination, considering that initial data shows that the value of assets that have been consolidated by Danantara is close to that figure.
One of the most concrete benefits of Danantara is its ability to create direct economic value for the community. The government targets Danantara to be able to create up to three million jobs, attract investment worth USD 618 billion, and increase its contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to USD 235.9 billion. These figures are not only ambitious targets, but also a real foundation for strengthening Indonesia’s economic structure. In an era of increasingly tight global competition, a country’s economic competitiveness is largely determined by how the country manages its assets and investments. Therefore, Danantara is a strategic step to transform passive assets into active and productive sources of economic power.
However, Danantara’s success is highly dependent on strict governance and management professionalism. President Prabowo emphasized the importance of eliminating old practices that are inefficient or deviant, and replacing them with a new approach based on integrity, capability, and the spirit of serving the people. A comprehensive evaluation of the BUMN board of directors, as well as the application of the principle of meritocracy in selecting Danantara’s leadership, are absolute prerequisites so that this agency does not fall into the trap of old bureaucracy full of political intervention.
This has also been confirmed by economic experts. Yusuf Rendy Manilet from CORE Indonesia said that in order for Danantara to be on par with world-class superholdings such as Temasek (Singapore) and Khazanah Nasional (Malaysia), four main requirements are needed: managerial independence, transparency and accountability, clarity of mandate, and portfolio diversification. The four aspects are the basic principles of Danantara, which wants to become a professional active investor, not just a static asset manager. Danantara’s mandate is also clearly purely for strategic investment interests.
Danantara CEO Rosan Roeslani has said that this agency was not formed to be fully subject to market mechanisms. Instead, Danantara is a concrete form of government intervention to ensure that the direction of national development remains in line with the mandate of the constitution, especially Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution. The Indonesian economy, said Rosan, is structured on the basis of family and cooperation, not just free competition. Therefore, the state’s strategic intervention in asset management is an effort to maintain economic sovereignty while increasing benefits for the people.
The existence of Danantara should also be a reminder that structural reform is not enough in the form of institutional change. It must be accompanied by a change in bureaucratic and business culture that is more modern, adaptive, and competitive. For that reason, Danantara is open to professional participation from various backgrounds, without discrimination. Promotion and recruitment are based on competence and dedication to the interests of the nation.
Danantara will become a new model for state asset management that is not only financially superior, but also a role model for other public institutions. With clean, transparent, and professional management, Danantara will become the future power of the archipelago as its name implies—a power capable of driving Indonesia’s economic energy sustainably.
Ultimately, Danantara’s success will be measured by how far it is able to bridge the interests of the state and the market, between business efficiency and social justice. Danantara is not just a policy project, but a symbol of the nation’s determination to rise, be independent, and sovereign in the economic field. Therefore, all components of the nation from the government, business actors, academics, to the community must participate in overseeing it so that this great ideal does not just stop on paper, but is realized for the prosperity of Indonesia.
*The author is an observer of economics and public asset management