Excellencies, 
Distinguished business leaders from the United States and from Indonesia,
Ladies and gentlemen, 

I am very pleased to be here in Washington, D.C. at a very important moment in the relationship between Indonesia and the United States. It is also a great honor for me to be invited here to be amongst you, the business leaders of both the U.S. and Indonesia.

As you know, I am here invited by the President of the United States of America for, I think, a very important meeting of the Board of Peace. This is, in fact, the first – I think the first official meeting of the Board of Peace that is being – that has been formed to protect the implementation and the continuation of the ceasefire in Gaza. And we are attempting to continue to forge a path towards a real and lasting solution of the Palestinian issue. 

Also, I’m here to conclude a major trade agreement between our two countries. I think an agreement that carries out important businesses, investors between our two countries and in the greater region of the Pacific. It sets a clear signal that Indonesia and the United States are choosing continuing and deeper economic cooperation, stronger market access, and greater certainty for business, for business leaders certainty matters. Before I went into politics, I was also in business. That’s why I think I can understand the business community with more empathy, I hope.

We are looking for serious long-term partners, partners who will work together with us, grow our economy together, and profit with each other, providing benefits to each other. We hope we will find partners who are ready to join us in our continuing attempt to modernize and industrialize. 

As president of my country, the Republic of Indonesia, my responsibility, I think, is very clear. I must ensure the sovereignty of my country. I must ensure good governance. I must ensure stability and peace. And, I must bring real and valuable benefits to my people in the shortest possible time.

As is said many times by many wise leaders in history: the hungry stomach cannot wait. A lot of my people are still experiencing difficult situations, many are still living under the poverty line, many face hunger, and these are difficulties that we must face and we must overcome. I am of the opinion that difficulties are to be confronted. Difficulties must be solved. Weaknesses must be acknowledged.

We understand that only with stability, good governance, can there be a climate that is attractive to foreign investors. No one wants to invest in a situation or atmosphere of uncertainty, instability, or even chaos. We are very fortunate that Indonesia has enjoyed quite a long period of relative stability, relative peace. We continue our foreign policy of non-alignment, of respecting all great powers. 

I announced my determination when I took office of carrying out a policy of the good neighbor. The good neighbor policy, I am determined to foster and enhance the best of relationship between all the neighbors surrounding Indonesia, in the near region surrounding us and also the wider region of East Asia and the Indo-Pacific.

I hold to the policy of one thousand friends too few and one enemy too many, not only in foreign policy but also in my domestic politics. I learned that cooperation, collaboration, compromise, will in the end prove more beneficial and profitable to all sides.

Competition is necessary, but after competition must come cooperation. This is my conviction, and I think history teaches us that countries at the level of development like Indonesia must forge compromise, cooperation, and collaboration amongst the elites of our country. We have to have competition, but we must also have collaboration and cooperation for the sake of the greater good.

In such a situation, I am convinced that a climate of stability, a climate of confidence will encourage investment. Most importantly, I am convinced of the importance of the rule of law, of good governance.

The fundamentals of our economy are strong, we have maintained fiscal discipline, our inflation under control, I think, one of the lowest. Foreign direct investment has also proved to be very sound. We reached USD53 billion last year, and I think this reflects real confidence in our economy. With its size, its growth potential, our political stability in the direction of our policies, we are growing steady 5 percent plus, continuing this continued trajectory, and I am personally convinced that our growth will be much higher this year. The tangible indicators are already showing up. We are moving the economy from the grassroots. 

Our economic strategy is very focused. First, we want to have the ability to sustain our growth, but we need to control our economy in the sense that we must control the sound use of our natural resources. And this comes to my next point, which I always like to discuss openly. We have weaknesses We have problems of good governance. We have problems of corruption. We have problems of weak institutional performance. A lot of smuggling is going around. A lot of illegal economic activities, illegal mining, illegal fishing, illegal economic activities such as corporations maintaining plantations in protected forests. This has been a long-time problem, but I choose to face these problems head-on. I do not want to surrender the sovereignty of the Indonesian government to these illegal cartels that perpetuate the loss of income, the loss of revenue that is due to the government and the people of Indonesia.

We calculate the loss due to weak governance and mismanagement of our economy to be tremendous. In my first few months taking over the administration, I have saved from the budget of my country around USD18 billion cash from our budget. These savings come from inefficiency, projects that are not productive. Maybe it could be similar to what was attempted or what has been attempted here in the United States also with the DOGE – Department of Government Efficiency. But I must say that I started first a few months before. I feel like I was successful. I feel empowered. I think I am one of the few presidents of Indonesia that in the first few months of the administration I saved USD18 billion in cash. 

Things that I cancelled, for instance, each government institution spent quite a considerable amount of money on ceremonies. It is our culture and we must acknowledge this weakness on our part. We spent a lot of money on anniversaries. Each ministry has an anniversary. Each provincial government has an anniversary. Each kabupaten or district has an anniversary. Can you imagine how many hundreds of ceremonies we have every week, every month all over Indonesia? So I just cancelled. The anniversary should be celebrated inside the office, maybe with a small lunch, perhaps just a takeaway from some restaurant. Just to add some rationale. Let’s think about what we can do for the people. And, what is this ceremony? I mean, this is my culture. I’m determined to save a lot of money. 

Apart from ceremonies, we have foreign travel, it was in the billions of dollars. So, I plan to cut down foreign travel from government institutions. Everybody wants a study tour to study something outside Indonesia. But I’m saying the problem for Indonesia is very clear. There was a study tour studying poverty alleviation in Australia. Australia, I think, is one of the 10 richest countries in the world, right? And what was said was when they sent a study team there, I learned from my Australian friends. It was around Easter. I mean, Australians being the majority Christian, I mean, at Easter you’re on holiday. There was no one. There was no one. Things like this happened. And I’m determined just to, you know, be rational. I got a report that there was a study tour of Indonesian officials going to Japan around the 20th of October. I mean, it was Christmas time. I mean, things like this, I try to have rationality. 

It was not easy in the beginning. In fact, I had demonstrators against me. But it was the first time in the history, perhaps of the world, that there was a demonstration against government efficiency. I don’t know who was paying for these demonstrators. But, I mean, it was a pretty sad issue.

So, we are determined to treat our act, we must do it at all costs because, in my opinion being once a foreign investor also is a country, I mean, nobody wants to enter an economy that is full of uncertainty, that there is no confidence in the legal processes and law enforcement. I think this is one of the most important things. And, I think it behooves Indonesian leaders to acknowledge this. And I said, we must have the courage to acknowledge our weaknesses and tackle them.

I’m very fortunate in having a good team helping me. I say, let’s do our best to produce better results for our people, our society. The Indonesian people now, they have access to information at a level never before known in our history. Everybody has gadgets and information travels very fast. And I’m experiencing the – I would say the benefit, but also the stress sometimes that many village children speak directly to me on their TikTok or on their – sending messages directly to the President, “Mr. President, we don’t have a bridge over our river here. We have to be wet every day going to school.” And this comes directly to me, right? So I have to be very quick in our reaction because they must feel that their government, they must feel that the central government, their president will listen to them, will react. And, it was heartwarming. 

I got messages from a headmaster of a very isolated school in Papua who said that they didn’t see for the first time I sent them – I’m providing a digital platform, smart interactive screen in every classroom of every school in Indonesia. And, we delivered – by the end of December 2025, we delivered 288,000 more – more than 280,000 screens. So that is nearly all the schools of Indonesia, one screen per school and it will be in one classroom.

But this year. I intend to add another three to every school, so there will be four screens to every school. And, my target will be by the end of my term as president, all classrooms in all schools of Indonesia will have this interactive screen in which, in the software, the entire syllabus of our schools are in the software can be accessed anytime. And, we can also have distance, long distance education, long distance teaching, so that every school in Indonesia, wherever they are, in the most isolated island, in the most isolated mountain, they will access the best knowledge, the best education they can get. Where there are no teachers, we are at the central studio of the best teachers of Indonesia, teaching through long distance.

So, this is what we call the digitalization of Indonesian education and we are going very serious about this. So this also, for instance, and I can, from Jakarta, I can see any classroom in any part of Indonesia and I can see if the teacher is there or the teacher is not there, what is the mood of the children. And I’m very impressed now that very, very fast, the children and the parents and the teachers are all enthusiastic about this. And, this is truly heartwarming for me to see the quick results of this program.

To continue, we are seeing results now and we are now continuing with a lot of reforms. For instance, we have just formed our new sovereign wealth fund. All our state-owned assets, we have consolidated it into an investment agency, an investment fund, which we call Danantara. And it’s now headed by the Minister of Investment, who concurrently is the head of our new sovereign wealth fund. They’ve been in operation, I think, nearly exactly one year, exactly one year, not yet one year, 24th of February, 24th of  February which is a few years from now when we established the sovereign wealth fund. And you see the head has lots and lots of hair. Actually, do you know the secret about this? This is what we call a cupia. The secret is actually this was designed to hide leaders whose heads are balding. So if I open my cupia, you will see I’m also balding. Just after one year. 

So, yes, we are open. We need investment. We want more investment and we are confident that we are competitive. We are attractive. We have a lot of minerals that are necessary for new technologies. I think we are strong in critical minerals. I think, I just got a report, I think we have one of the largest rare earth reserves in the world. We are going ahead with processing downstream industries and I think Danantara will be a key engine for this move. For instance, we have just started, initiated 18 new projects, downstream processing. This year, 18 projects plus another USD3 billion worth of waste to energy processing plants, which is very crucial for us to take care of our waste management. 

So, we are moving very fast in all of these sectors. And I think for American companies, Indonesia will not just be an attractive market, but also we hope that it will be used as a production base and that Indonesia can be viewed as a good strategic partner for the region. Our scale is very significant. Our demographics are strong. And, we renew our commitment to openness.

We have a long way to go. Infrastructure must be improved. Logistics must be improved to cut down costs. We need more efficient ports, harbors, airports, highways. We want to go the digital path that can improve efficiency. We are working very hard to reduce costs, strengthen connectivity, and to ensure supply chains operating through Indonesia that will be reliable.

Energy transition is also part of our long-term strategy. We are committed to renewables, electric vehicles, green industries, but our approach is very pragmatic. We will go at a speed that is adjusted to our capacity. We pursue projects that must be economically sound, that must be bankable and capable of delivering long-term returns. 

Ladies and gentlemen,
I have carried out large projects that are designed to address the reality of a lot of our children facing hunger and malnutrition. I have carried out a free meal program, which basically I copied or I learned fr om the experience of the American experience and the European experience. I understand in most American schools, in most European schools, there has been free meal programs for many, many years. And I understand that this is actually a real part of the democratization process. Real democracy can be felt or can benefit all society most directly through education and through health services. This is why I learned what I learned and I am convinced that this is correct. 

As you know, my election as President-elect of the Republic of Indonesia has been a long journey. I took part in five attempts – 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, and the fifth was 2024. So four defeats, but final success.

What I learned from these four defeats, I learned during my campaign. My campaigns, I traveled the country, I visited the villages, and frankly I was shocked when I saw a lot of children in the villages who were very small. I asked their age, and children who I thought were 4, 5, 6 years old, they told me their age was 10, 11, 12. And then I learned that 25 percent of our children are experiencing stunting, stunting growth. So their brain cells are not to the optimum, their bone cells, their muscle cells. So they will be completely weak when they grow up, physically also.

So I was thinking that this must be a way, we cannot accept this. And then I saw also the gap, the gap between the very rich and the top, and most of them, or most of my people, are still experiencing poverty. And, this made me even more determined to have policies that can immediately alleviate these matters.

And I did this with determination, and I used the savings that we made from inefficient, unproductive, and frankly misuse of our government money, government funds. The budget that, very frankly I would say, has and had we not carried out strict efficiency, would have gone, would have evaporated, being part of the corruption that we faced. So this money that I saved would have gone, evaporated to corruption. And, this is the money that I used to reallocate to these programs. So I’ve been accused of being, spending recklessly, et cetera. No, no, this is reallocation of resources.

By the way, I met, after a few months of my program, I met some leaders from the Rockefeller Institute, from the United States, who came to Jakarta to study our free lunch program, free meal program. And they told me that this was the wisest choice, the best investment that any contractor could have made. Because for every dollar spent in free meals for the children, the return is, according to the Rockefeller Institute, the return is at least seven dollars in return, but not, in the long term, provide a return up to 35 times. That’s the, they say that they have done the research for many countries, through many years, and this is the result. I think we are now experiencing this. 

Some of the members of Apindo came to me a few, I think last week, and they experienced this. January was the highest domestic consumption for many, many years. I think for the last 10 or 15 years, domestic consumption in January was the highest. And they tell me their experience is because of the free meal program. 

Free meal program, we have now already 23,000 kitchens, each kitchen employing 50 people in the village. Mothers who never had any income, now they have income. They are working three or four shifts to provide food, but also this creates demand. Now each kitchen, each village has a need for eggs, for chicken, for vegetables, for tomatoes, etc. So another 10-15 farmers have guaranteed offtake. And this results in a multiplier effect, which is creating some sort of boom from the bottom.

So this encourages us, and I think this also guarantees or enhances social and political stability. We understand that employment is critical and very important. And this creates real employment, real demand. Now, production of nearly all agricultural goods are very high. Now, we have achieved the highest rice production in the history of the Republic of Indonesia. I think on all commodities now we are nearly self-sufficient, except for a few.

So, Ladies and Gentlemen, I can go on and on about our achievements in the first year, but I think I will cut down on my short remarks. Because as you know, if you give a political leader a microphone, he tends to not want to stop.

So I’ve met many American business leaders, even in the short time that I’ve been here now I’m meeting you. I’m very optimistic. We want to see American companies as strategic partners. And I think I’ve proven – I think a lot of the long-term players and participants in our economy, I think, will testify how the Indonesian Government and myself also continue in that tradition. We have always tried to protect our investors. We have always tried to be a good host and tried to produce the best atmosphere for our investors. And, the U.S. is one of our strongest partners. 

We can never forget that the United States supported our independence struggle. Basically, the United States intervened on our side during our war of independence and that can never be forgotten in our history. Many times the United States intervened, helping Indonesia in critical times. So that I also tell the younger generation of Indonesians to not forget the role that the United States played in our – in the birth of our nation politically and also economically.

In the beginning and in critical times, the United States supported us in the 60s and we had agriculture collapse because of the turmoil that was happening not only in Indonesia but all over Southeast Asia in the 60s. The United States came to us providing relief. I still remember – I think this was called PL 480. It was very important for us, significant. 

So we hope for a stronger American presence in our economy. And, I want to assure you that we are working very hard to, basically for interest, for the interest of our people. The Indonesian people demand good governance, demand a clean government. This is my position, pemerintah yang bersih dan adil. The government that is clean and will create, promote, and defend justice and the rule of law. 

Ladies and gentlemen, 
I think that concludes my remarks. I apologize for maybe taking too much of your time allocated to me. But, I conclude with the hope that relations between the U.S. and Indonesia will continue to be good and we will flourish together. I believe that what I learned from American entrepreneurs is let’s make money together. Right? Win-win. Win-win, everybody makes profit. It should be win-win and everybody benefits. With benefit, prosperity. That’s the lesson I learned from history. Prosperity comes from good governance, clean government. Prosperity comes from stability. Stability comes from satisfied people. They’re satisfied because they have confidence in their leaders. So, please come to Indonesia.

Thank you very much.