Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has been named the World’s Best Minister.
The minister, who’s in command of the budget of Southeast Asia’s largest economy, received the award from United Arab Emirates Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum throughout the sixth annual Summit of World Governments in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Sunday.
“During her term, Indonesia achieved tangible results in reducing poverty, improving living standards, reducing public debt and increasing transparency in public transactions,” the award committee said.
She was also praised for her efforts to “fight corruption and increase government transparency.”
Sri Mulyani has been finance minister since 2016 under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and was previously managing director of the World Bank. She previously served as finance minister from 2005 to 2010 and is credited with steering Indonesia through the worldwide financial crisis.
“The Indonesian economy is now much more resilient, and that is largely due to the much stronger fundamentals of how we run it,” she said. CNBC in an interview last yr.
The selection process for the Best Minister Award was conducted by independent consulting firm Ernst & Young, bearing in mind ministers’ leadership, innovation, social and economic impact and scalability of initiatives and policies.
The aim of the award is to recognise “the exceptional efforts of government ministers in demonstrating excellence in the public sector, implementing successful reforms and inspiring other government leaders and service providers to drive innovation in their field to better serve the needs of citizens.”
Previous winners include former Senegalese Minister for Health and Social Work Awa Marie Coll-Seck in 2017 and then-Australian Environment Minister Greg Hunt in 2016.
According to the World Government Summit, poverty in Indonesia has been reduced by 40 percent prior to now five years, while the country’s debt has been reduced by 50 percent. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s reserves have reached an “all-time high” of $50 billion, it said.
In a video posted on Facebook, Sri Mulyani dedicated the award to Jokowi’s leadership, the people of Indonesia and the ministry’s 78,000 employees. “I hope this award will motivate the Indonesian government to implement further reforms to prepare the younger generation for a rapidly changing world and technological advances,” she said.
The minister spearheaded Indonesia’s ambitious tax amnesty program, the Jokowi administration’s major investments in infrastructure and “gained a fame for determination,” he said. Bloomberg.
Sri Mulyani was named Asia’s best finance minister last yr by FinanceAsia and took thirty seventh place within the rating Forbes on the magazine’s list of “The Most Powerful Women within the World” in 2016.
Source: https://asiancorrespondent.com/2018/02/sri-mulyani-indonesian-finance-minister-best-world/#t3MD9AG0W7WyDUTC.99
