By: Agung Nugroho)*
The G20 presidency will be a magnet to pursue investment in 2022. With this flow of investment, it is hoped that there will be a lot of job opportunities.
The G20 countries represent 85 percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and two-thirds of the world’s population. The members of the G20 consist of the United States, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia (FEB UI), Teguh Dartanto said Indonesia’s leadership in the G20 could boost investment performance in 2022 in two ways.
First, with the G20 Presidency, Teguh assessed that the government will ensure that the handling of health and the Covid-19 pandemic goes well. He assessed that the government would try to keep the Covid-19 situation and pandemic under control. Teguh also said that this matter should be kept under control, unlike conditions during July-August 2021 at that time.
In line with this, investment performance will also be maintained. This can be seen in the investment performance in the third quarter of 2021 which has slowed due to the spread of the Delta variant in July-August, so the government needs to implement Emergency PPKM and PPKM levels 3-4.
During this period, investment realization grew 3.7 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 216.7 trillion. However, this value decreased or contracted by 2.8 percent when compared to the achievement in the second quarter of 2021, amounting to Rp 223 trillion. Second, Teguh is optimistic that the role of the Presidency in the G20 forum can be used by Indonesia as a “magnet” to bring investment into the country.
While leading the forum, Indonesia will hold more than 150 meeting agendas, both physical and non-physical. This meeting will be closed at the Summit of world leaders at the end of October 2022. This means that the G20 moment in Indonesia must be used properly to realize what is targeted by the President of the Republic of Indonesia.
We also cannot close our eyes that the Covid-19 pandemic has driven digitalization, including the economy. Indonesia also participates in encouraging the development of the digital economy on a global scale.
Seeing the development of economic digitalization that has occurred very quickly in the past two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Indonesia wants to be part of the one that creates this order. We must also believe that Indonesia will also take advantage of the opportunity to become a leader in the G20 for the benefit of the Indonesian economy.
Indonesia itself has been given the honor of becoming a member of the G20 in 2008 and as the only ASEAN country that is a member of the G20. Meanwhile, the 6th President of the Republic of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that the G20 forum is not only an economic forum, but also a civilization forum, because some of its member countries are countries with a majority Muslim population such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.
To answer why Indonesia can join the G20 Forum. This is partly due to the fact that Indonesia has a pluralistic society, ethnic groups and adherents of important religions in the world, and can also be an example for other countries on how a pluralistic society can live side by side.
Meanwhile, Indonesia also has high economic potential, both in terms of natural resources and human resources. The demographic bonus experienced by Indonesia, where the population of productive age is high and the middle class is starting to grow rapidly, shows the world how much potential Indonesia has.
At least 150 meetings will be held in this event in 19 cities. The event will be attended by more than 18,000 delegates from all countries in the world.
Therefore, apart from creating jobs, Indonesia can also increase domestic consumption by up to Rp 1.7 trillion. So that this can help increase the national GDP up to IDR 7.4 trillion.
Of course, this magnet must be used, especially as the opportunity for the G20 Presidency this time to make Indonesia the host, so that this golden opportunity should not be missed so that Indonesia can attract investment which in the future will have an impact on increasing the economy and absorption of labor.
)* The author is a citizen/contributor of Citizen Journalism
