(Oct 22): Indonesian President Joko Widodo asked the nation’s opposition leader and the founder of its biggest startup to join a revamped cabinet as he puts the Southeast Asian nation on a path to become a US$7 trillion ($9.5 trillion) economy.
Prabowo Subianto, the president’s challenger in the 2014 and 2019 elections, told reporters he was offered a ministerial post in the defence sector after meeting with Widodo in Jakarta on Monday. Nadiem Makarim, the 35-year-old co-founder of ride-hailing service Gojek, said he was also offered a cabinet post.
Jokowi, as the 58-year-old president is known, was sworn in for a second and final five-year term on Sunday, pledging to overhaul a host of laws hindering investment and job creation. He wants to boost the size of the US$1 trillion economy to US$7 trillion by 2045 and lift per-capita income to 320 million rupiah ($30,914) by then.
