Vice President of Indonesia delivers GEG Special Address

On 30 October, the Global Economic Governance Programme and the Blavatnik School of Government hosted His Excellency Dr Boediono, Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, to deliver a Special Address. In a lecture at Oxford’s Examination Schools, titled Transforming Indonesia: The Challenges of Good Governance and Economic Development, Dr Boediono reflected on seven decades of political and economic evolution in Indonesia, and laid out a vision for where the country is headed today.

“Learning from Indonesia’s varied and at times checked historical experience it has become increasingly clear to me that the problems of politics, economics and governance cannot be … pursued independently of each other,” he noted. Looking to the future, Dr Boediono identified the key elements of the country’s ongoing reform strategy, including eradicating corruption, investing in infrastructure, improving the country’s bureaucracy, launching a new national health insurance system, and strengthening the education system.

In a question and answer session following the lecture, Dr Boediono responded to questions from students and faculty on lessons from the East Timor experience, the challenge of decentralizing governance given Indonesia’s unique geography, deforestation and Indonesia’s climate change policy, and the role of international pressures in spurring or constraining domestic reforms, including on the contentious issue of conflict in the West Papua region.

Watch Dr Boediono's address and the subsequent Q&A session below.