Indonesia’s Finance Minister the best in Asia

The controversial Finance Asia magazine has nominated Indonesia’s female Finance Minister as the best in the job in the Asean and the Asia region.

Sri Mulyani Indrawati who is also the World Bank’s no. 2 since 2010 was at the helm of the Finance Ministry from 2005-2010 and returned to the job after President Joko Widodo nominated her again to the top finance job.

Finance Asia said she did not waste her time to impose her style in stamping her authority, calling her ‘a deserving Finance Minister of the year’!

The magazine shot to temporary fame last year when it slated Malaysian Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister Najib Razak as the worst ‘treasurer’ in the Asean region.

This sparked frantic comments on the Malaysian social media, to the point that the Malaysian government criticised the publication for its listing.

This year, Najib did no better, being placed one notch higher in the Asian ranking. He was ranked 12th last year overall in Asia.

Who really is Sri Mulyani Indrawati?

She is the Managing Director of the World Bank, and is the most senior woman ever at this post.

She is with bringing together the best ideas and people from the institution’s 188 member countries to achieve its dual objectives: ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity.

Indeed, as Indonesia’s minister of finance, as well as its coordinating minister of economic affairs in the past, she is well regarded in the region.

In a recent paper, said Forbes Magazine, she highlighted the need to close the opportunity gender gap, writing that globally, women’s labor force participation has stagnated or dropped, and women are 50% less likely to have a full-time wage job, with those who do earning up to a third less than men.

Gaps in women’s labor force participation account for estimated income losses equivalent to a quarter of the GDP in the Middle East and about 14% in Latin America.

Based on a global study, Indrawati also noted that when companies include women in their leadership, they are less likely to be embroiled in a scandal or fraud.

Such observations, from the World Bank’s top woman executive, carry extra freight, said Forbes.