Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto expects Indonesia’s G20 Presidency in 2022 and implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to help in reviving the national capital market.
The statement was conveyed at the inauguration of the 2022 Indonesia Stock Exchange Trading Opening here on Monday.
Indonesia officially holds the G20 Presidency since December 1, 2021, with the agenda starting on December 7, 2021.
Meanwhile, RCEP is a free trade agreement among Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, or the ASEAN Plus Six country members, except for India.
Currently, it is the world’s largest trade bloc, constituting some 30 percent of the global population and 30 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP).
The agreement has been implemented in several member countries as of January 1, 2022.
However, implementation of the agreement has been delayed in Indonesia. Nonetheless, the government has targeted to enforce the RCEP in the first quarter of 2022.
On the same occasion, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), who inaugurated the event, stated that Indonesia should be grateful for the increase in the Indonesia Composite Stock Exchange (IHSG) and the number of investors amid 2021.
In addition, the IHSG achieved a return of 10.1 percent in 2021.
“The figure exceeded the achievements of Singapore (9.8 percent), Malaysia (minus 3.7 percent), and the Philippines (minus 0.2 percent),” the president noted.
The president pointed to a quite high increase in the number of people, who participated in the stock exchange and became capital market investors.
According to data of the Financial Services Authority (OJK), the number of investors had reached only 1.1 million in 2017.
However, currently, there are 7.4 million investors, mostly young millennials as individual investors.
At the opening on Monday, the IHSG rose 4.78 points, or 0.07 percent, to 6,586.26. Meanwhile, the group of 45 leading stocks, or the LQ45 index, increased by 1.01 points, or 0.11 percent, to 932.42.
Source: Antara News