Indonesia president calls for new global economic order

Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Wednesday called for a new global economic order that isn’t reliant on the world’s three main multilateral lending institutions.

The remark was made at the opening session of a conference of Asian and African leaders in Jakarta.

“The idea that the world’s economic problems can be solved only through the World Bank, IMF and ADB is obsolete and must‎ be abandoned,” Mr. Widodo told an audience including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, referring to the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank.

“I am of the opinion that the fate of the global economy should not only be left to those three financial institutions,” he added. “It is imperative that we build a new international economic order that is open to new emerging economic powers.”

He called for reform of a global economic architecture “to avoid the domination of certain groups of countries.”

In recent months, China has been leading talks for a new multilateral lending institution known as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to focus on the hundreds of billions of dollars of financing needed to build up large-scale infrastructure projects across the region. Mr. Widodo didn’t mention the institution by name, but Indonesia is supporting the endeavor as a founding member of the bank.

Mr. Widodo also said Asian and Africa nations should push to reform the United Nations, describing the world body as powerless to resolve problems of global imbalances and injustices. He cited the example of the Palestinian conflict in particular, and called for an independent Palestinian state.