(Bloomberg) — Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto picked his predecessor’s fix-it man as the chief of the economic advisory council for his new government.
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Luhut Panjaitan, previously Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment under Joko Widodo’s leadership, was appointed to the role during a ceremony to inaugurate the new cabinet on Monday. Panjaitan, a former military general, had earlier made clear that he planned to retire from front-line politics but was open to advising the new government.
The National Economic Council will function as a think tank staffed with economy experts and will advise the new government on how to achieve its growth goals, Panjaitan said in an Instagram post. He told reporters that Prabowo tasked him with improving government management through digitalization.
Panjaitan’s previous role as a coordinating minister under former President Jokowi was pivotal in Indonesia’s mineral downstreaming campaign. For years, he had been the go-to man who could woo investors and shuttle between ministries to cut through the bureaucracy. He’s pushed through everything from coronavirus controls to a landmark climate finance deal in 2022.
His former coordinating ministry, which managed everything from minerals to tourism policy, has now been dissolved under Prabowo. Many of its responsibilities will be moved to the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, its head Airlangga Hartarto said at a press conference on Monday.
The newly beefed-up Ministry of Investment and Downstreaming will focus on expanding the policy of bringing added-value processing onshore beyond the minerals sector, its minister Rosan Perkasa Roeslani said on Monday. Fisheries and food such as seaweed will be targeted with the aim of creating as many jobs as possible, he said.
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