Deputy Minister of State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) Kartika Wirjoatmodjo has confirmed that the Daya Anagata Nusantara Investment (BPI Danantara) will be officially launched in March 2025.
Addressing the Mandiri Investment Forum (MIF) 2025 event at the Fairmont Hotel Jakarta on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, Kartika, who is familiarly called Tiko, said that currently the government is finalizing the organizational structure and management of Danantara before it officially operates.
“Please be patient for a month to ensure the exact details about this organization. And we will launch this organization hopefully next month (March) or so,” Tiko said.
Danantara is designed to serve as the primary superholding agency for state-owned enterprises (SOEs). It is positioned to manage and leverage state assets for long-term value, redefining SOE management and limiting the role of the SOEs minister in the process.
The formation of Danantara has been stated in the Law on State-owned Enterprises, which was recently passedby the House of Representatives (DPR). Tiko cited that in this new regulation, Danantara’s role as a superholding will be strengthened to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of Indonesian SOEs in the strategic sector.
“The Ministry of Finance, together with the central government, is currently finalizing a new law on State-Owned Enterprises. Under this new law, we will develop our new superholding, Danantara,” Tiko said.
Capital Market observer, Yanuar Rizky, highlighted that Danantara will be a solution for financing development outside the State Budget (APBN), which has so far relied on taxes and government bonds.
He compared this approach to the strategy used by U.S. President Donald Trump in encouraging infrastructure development and the manufacturing industry to face China’s dominance.
“Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Treasury Department is preparing a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) to support investment without increasing the burden of taxes or State debt. So President Prabowo Subianto’s idea was ‘copied’ by Trump,” Yanuar spoke to Indonesia Business Post, on Tuesday, February 11, 2025.
According to Yanuar, the trend of establishing investment institutions such as Danantara is in line with President Prabowo’s vision of strengthening the state’s role in strategic sector investment.
Bureaucratic efficiency
However, challenges still lie ahead, especially regarding the existence of the Ministry of SOEs which is maintained in the new law. If the Danantara superholding has been formed, the authority to manage SOEs could be directly under the Ministry of Finance, as is the practice in many countries.
“There will still be the Minister of SOEs, when a superholding (Danantara) is formed. Indeed, this is what is called a new idea, do not interfere with power,” Yanuarsaid, while alluding to the potential for overlapping authority.
The existence of the Ministry of SOEs is considered to be able to hinder bureaucratic efficiency, which should be one of the main objectives of the formation of Danantara.
Yanuar said that in many countries, the power of state shareholders in SOEs is usually held directly by the Minister of Finance, while operations are managed by the superholding.
