Jakarta (Antara Bali) - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has inaugurated Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi as a coordinator of the cabinet for diplomatic issues related to the economy.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry's spokesperson, Arrmantha Nasir, said during an interview at his office here on Tuesday that in general, Minister Marsudi's main work was to follow-up on the economic agreements between different bodies in the home country and other nations. The minister follows up on the political side, the spokesperson said.
"The problem with the g-to-g (government-to-government) agreement is that somehow it takes too long to execute them into real work, than in case of b-to-b (business-to-business) agreements," he said.
Hence, Minister Marsudi was expected to tackle the barriers that might halt the execution process by consulting both, her fellow Indonesian minister and the counterparts abroad.
However, the spokesperson could not elaborate upon the mechanism and for how long the Minister of Foreign Affairs would continue coordinating.
"The discussion between Mister President (Jokowi) and the ministers is still underway," Nasir stated.
"But we, in the Foreign Affairs Ministry, hope that this coordinating team would bring about some improvements to accelerate the implementation of the leaders' agreement on the ground."
The cabinet ministers under the economic diplomacy's coordinator included 10 ministers and two heads of national bodies. These are:
1. Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Sudirman Said to Middle East
2. Minister of National Development Plan Sofyan Djalil to Japan
3. Minister of State-owned Enterprises Rini Seomarno to China
4. Minsiter of Maritime and Fisheries Susi Pudjiastuti to Russia
5. Minister of Trade Thomas Lembong to Europe and Australia
6. Minister of Transportation Ignasius Jonan to India
7. Coordinating Minister of Politic Law and Defense Luhut Pandjaitan to Singapore
8. Coordinating Minister of Maritime Rizal Ramli to Malaysia
9. Minister of Communication and Informatics Rudiantara to the US and Latin American countries
10. Minister of Agriculture Amran Sulaiman to Thailand, Vietnam and other Asian countries other than Singapore and Malaysia
11. Head of National Investment Coordinating Board Franky Sibarani to Hongkong
12. Head of Creative Economy Board Triawan Munaf to South Korea. (WDY)
