Press Release No. 11/26

Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement today in Jakarta at the conclusion of his visit to Indonesia:

“It has been a great pleasure for me to make my first visit to Indonesia as Managing Director of the IMF. I wish to thank President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the economic team for their warm hospitality. I also had the privilege of having valuable discussions with Governor Darmin Nasution of Bank Indonesia.

“In the meeting with President Yudhoyono, we discussed global economic prospects and financial market developments and I gave him the Fund’s assessment of the global recovery. It remains a two-speed, unbalanced recovery, with emerging markets growing much more rapidly than the mature economies, and with risks still to the downside.

“I also brought to the President’s attention the Fund’s engagement in Asia, and cooperation with ASEAN, as well as Fund efforts to reform its lending facilities and strengthen the global financial safety net. We are also refining our surveillance to improve our ability to detect future crises. We agreed that the Fund can only be effective if it is legitimate. In this context the President welcomed the recent IMF governance reforms and the fact that dynamic emerging markets will have an important voice in the IMF.

“In our meeting, I noted that Indonesia is doing very well—it was among the countries least affected by the crisis—because of good policies and good foundations, and other countries can learn from its experience. It also takes global cooperation seriously, through its role in the G20, ASEAN, and the region in general. It is active in efforts to establish a global financial safety net and has contributed to the strengthening of the Chiang Mai initiative—something we support.

“Again, I would like to thank the authorities for their hospitality and all those I met for very frank and open discussions.”