Indonesia recruits Bank Permata's CEO to head new sovereign wealth fund

Indonesia's president has elected PT Bank Permata Tbk's CEO Ridha Wirakusumah the head of the nation's new sovereign wealth fund in a live broadcast on the presidential secretariat's YouTube channel on Feb. 16.

The fund, which is known as the Indonesian Investment Authority, was established in November 2020 as part of a job creation bill. It will be an additional investment vehicle to complement the state budget and state-owned enterprises, said Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the country's minister of finance.

The fund will aim to have 75 trillion rupiah by 2021-end, she said. The fund has been injected a capital of 15 trillion rupiah in 2020 and is budgeted for an additional 15 trillion rupiah in 2021.

The board will aim to attract both foreign and domestic capital, not loans, that are "value-adding" and "a clean governance" to provide funding for its national infrastructure, Wirakusumah said in the broadcast.

The fund already has a pipeline of infrastructure projects worth around US$9.5 billion, he said.

Before leading Bank Permata, Wirakusumah had helmed the Asia operations of General Electric Co., American International Group, Inc., and the Indonesian operations of Malayan Banking Bhd.

As of Feb. 15, US$1 was equivalent to 13,910.00 Indonesian rupiah.