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View all search resultsInto the light, Danantara
The agency needs to keep in mind that the most effective way to build lasting trust is through transparency.
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An employee walks in the courtyard of Wisma Danantara Indonesia, Jakarta, on Sept. 8, 2025. (Antara/Dhemas Reviyanto)
Since its inception in February last year, state asset fund Danantara has faced one persistent demand: transparency.
Yet, despite its central role in President Prabowo Subianto’s ambition to achieve 8 percent economic growth by 2029, the agency has continued to fall short of the openness that the public expects.
The original idea behind Danantara was to allow the agency to manage dividends from state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which would otherwise flow into the state budget. Proponents argued that it would be more efficient for Danantara to manage these funds directly, rather than requiring SOEs to go through a lengthy, albeit transparent, budgetary process whenever they needed financing for commercial activities or public service obligations.
In this way, Danantara could function as an independent entity managing state assets and investment funds, similar to sovereign wealth funds elsewhere in the world.
Since then, the public has sought clarity on how much in dividends SOEs have transferred to Danantara, how those funds are managed and where the money is ultimately spent.
Such expectations are reasonable. Before Danantara was established, the SOE Ministry, despite its different mandate, disclosed such information through financial reports and other public documents.
However, Danantara has so far kept its books largely closed.
