Indonesian President Joko Widodo departs following a visit to the Indonesia Stock Exchange in Jakarta.
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Indonesian President Joko Widodo put two experienced technocrats into key economic management posts yesterday in a cabinet reshuffle designed to reassure investors anxious about a policy drift that has seen growth slip to a six-year low.
Darmin Nasution, former central bank governor, has been appointed chief economic minister and Tom Lembong, a prominent private equity executive, takes over the trade portfolio.
Wellian Wiranto, a market analyst with Singapore-based OCBC Bank, said trust Nasution will “have a superior chance at facilitating financial arrangements among the heap of services and offices which have been generally deficient with regards to so far”.
Last week, Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency reported that the economy had grown by 4.67 percent in the first semester of this year – a six-year low and 0.36 percent drop from the same period last year.
His failure to defend the popular anti-graft agency from attacks by the notoriously corrupt police, during a row over the appointment of a controversial new police chief, severely dented his credentials as a corruption fighter.
Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel is among the several ministers that will go.
Former military General Luhut Panjaitan, the former chief of staff and an influential advisor to the president has been rewarded with a powerful chief minister position, overseeing defence, foreign affairs and human rights.
Jokowi also replaced Security Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno.
Maritime affairs minister Indroyono Soesilo was replaced by Rizal Ramli, while national development planning minister Andrinof Chaniago was replaced by Sofyan Djalil, who moves from the post of chief economics minister.
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In a sign of Mr. Widodo’s growing independence from his political patrons, he accommodated only one additional political appointee from his own party, Pramono Anung as cabinet.
