Calibrating Danantara's

Jakarta (ANTARA) - As 2026 begins, the international community casts a contradictory gaze upon Indonesia. On one hand, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank maintain Indonesia’s status as a "bright spot," projecting stable growth at 5.1 percent.

On the other, Moody’s Ratings has sounded a cautionary note, recently revised Indonesia’s debt outlook from stable to negative this February.This divergence in perspective suggests that while macroeconomic fundamentals remain statistically robust, deep-seated skepticism persists regarding long-term policy direction—specifically concerning the operationalization of Daya Anagata Nusantara, or Danantara.

mandate for global market credibility

This dissonance is equally palpable at home. Domestic authorities, from Bank Indonesia to the Financial Services Authority (OJK), continue to project optimism, citing healthy market liquidity and 2025’s 5.11 percent growth as a springboard for higher performance.

For the authorities, Danantara is the panacea for development financing bottlenecks. However, capital market analysis captures a different signal.

The Rupiah’s slide toward the IDR 16,800 per USD mark and the correction in state-owned bank stocks reveal a measured anxiety.

Investors are looking beyond growth figures; they are calculating the risks of "institutional entanglement"—a bureaucratic complexity that threatens to breed governance uncertainty.

This phenomenon demonstrates that optimistic narratives of a 6 percent growth target are no longer sufficient to soothe the markets without being coupled with radical transparency.

The capital market is hypersensitive to the risk of Danantara evolving into a "second fiscal pocket" or a gargantuan bureaucratic super-holding operating without adequate parliamentary oversight.

The fear of an institution capable of bypassing conventional fiscal discipline is precisely what lies at the heart of the pressure on Indonesia’s investment grade.

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If this functional ambiguity persists, the economic reputation built over decades could hang in the balance.

Amidst this turbulence of perception, it is vital to revisit President Prabowo Subianto’s grand vision.

He has asserted that Danantara is not merely a financial tool, but an instrument of "Economic Sovereignty."

The President emphasizes that Indonesia must possess a wealth consolidation vehicle capable of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with global investment giants.

In his view, Danantara is an engine for "asset downstreaming"—ensuring that state wealth does not sit idle as mere figures on a balance sheet but is actively managed to finance national independence in food, energy, and water.

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This vision provides a potent ideological compass, yet it simultaneously heightens the managerial responsibility to prove that sovereignty does not equate to isolation from global professional standards.

To bridge the President’s vision with market expectations, a "governance fortress" must be erected.

Under corporate law, a strict separation between political interests and commercial execution must be enforced through an institutional firewall.

Danantara must adopt a structure validated by a world-class professional advisory board. Engaging expertise from global sovereign wealth funds like Temasek or GIC would be more than a pragmatic step; it would serve as a signal of international compliance to restore eroded trust.

Transparency can no longer be static. Danantara needs to provide a real-time public dashboard displaying portfolio performance and debt levels openly.

This must be reinforced by data-driven investment decision-making. Under such a system, every capital placement would be predicated on a competitive Internal Rate of Return (IRR), effectively filtering out "zombie" projects that offer political value but burden the state’s coffers.

This is how Danantara can purge the unproductive asset management practices that have long persisted under the conventional SOE (BUMN) umbrella.

The next urgent strategy is to position Danantara as a machine for asset recycling. A classic malady of Indonesian SOEs is the low liquidity of mature infrastructure assets.

Danantara should take over assets with stable cash flows and then securitize or divest stakes to long-term investors.

The fresh capital generated from this recycling can then fund new National Strategic Projects without adding new debt burdens.

This strategy must be governed by a Governance Charter that prohibits Danantara from guaranteeing government projects that fall below market standards without clear budgetary compensation.

Ultimately, from the warnings of global agencies to the President’s vision of sovereignty, we arrive at one central conclusion: Danantara must prove itself as a creative financing solution, not a new source of leakage.

The success of this institution will not be measured by the trillions of assets it consolidates, but by its ability to generate stable non-tax revenue without distorting fair market competition.

The government must not be lured by the euphoria of grand numbers; instead, it must focus on the quality and efficiency of management.

Upholding the integrity of Danantara is synonymous with safeguarding global trust in the Indonesian economy.

Through unwavering professionalism, Indonesia can transform the perceptual risks signaled by Moody’s into a competitive advantage for the nation’s future.

*)Rioberto Sidauruk is a strategic industry analyst, Expert Advisor to the Parliamentary Bodies of the DPR RI.

**)Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the ANTARA News Agency.