The plan to establish the Daya Anagata Nusantara Investment Management Agency, also known as BPI Danantara, has drawn significant public attention.
Although Danantara is an initiative expected to improve the performance and governance of state assets, its emergence coincides with a period when the government is facing various issues related to policies that have sparked both support and opposition in society.
From an economic and management perspective, however, the establishment of Danantara is a common occurrence.
Like a holding or parent company, Danantara is expected to manage several state-owned enterprises (BUMN) with estimated funds reaching IDR 14,000 trillion.
Dr. Eddy Junarsin, an economist at Universitas Gadjah Mada, expressed that this program should have been designed and implemented long ago, but unfortunately, it was launched at an unfavorable moment.
The government is currently grappling with several socio-political issues arising from publicly debated programs such as budget efficiency initiatives, free nutritious meals, and the revision of the Mineral and Coal Law (UU Minerba).
“It’s unfortunate that its emergence has been affected by political issues,” he explained on Friday (Feb. 21).
Dr. Junarsin believes that the establishment of Danantara actually has positive intentions. It aims to consolidate the management of state assets from BUMNs to make them more transparent and well-coordinated.
Each company will be more open, with the holding company directly appointing and supervising the boards of commissioners and directors. So far, ministries have made appointments to these boards, often without sufficient reasoning or evaluation.
“Until now, government oversight has been through the appointment of commissioners and directors by ministries, which is not particularly binding. With Danantara, monitoring by the parent company will be more transparent and effective,” he clarified.
However, Dr. Junarsin also warned that the establishment of Danantara might negatively impact the performance of BUMNs.
The presence of a holding company could add another hierarchical layer, extending bureaucratic processes.
This additional management layer risks reducing the creative freedom of individual BUMNs.
“The benefits of Danantara are more defensive rather than offensive. That is, transparency and governance may improve, but performance and innovation are not guaranteed,” he remarked.
In implementing Danantara, Dr. Junarsin emphasized the need for follow-up actions and the need for the effort not to end with the creation of a holding company.
Danantara needs to plan mergers and acquisitions of various state-owned companies to be more effective and efficient, with streamlined management and agility in innovation.
According to him, the most significant expectation is that the emergence of this investment management agency can prevent moral hazards because, through an official holding company structure, oversight will be more transparent.
“In terms of control and transparency, things will improve, but the negative potential lies in bureaucratic inefficiency,” he stated.
Dr. Junarsin believes Danantara’s impact on the national economy will contribute to the country’s long-term financial stability.
However, the government and research institutions must study further the extent to which investor confidence in stability and investment needs will be affected.
“Its short-term impact may proceed as usual, but in the long term, we cannot predict its effectiveness, as economic variables are interconnected and quite complex,” he explained.
Author: Jelita Agustine
Editor: Gusti Grehenson
Post-editor: Afifudin Baliya
Photo: Bisnis.com