Figure 1 Vivi Alatas (from right), Rolande Pryce, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and Yenny Wahid, posing for a photo together with the Aspiring Indonesia Report.
On January 30, 2020, the Purnomo Yusgiantoro Center (PYC) attended a seminar held by the World Bank at Soehanna Hall, Jakarta. The seminar was opened by a welcoming remarks from Rolande Pryce, the Acting Country Director of World Bank for Indonesia and Timor Leste. Afterwards, the MC moderated a plenary session with H.E. Gary Quinlan, Ambassador of Australia for Indonesia, and Hassan Zaman, Senior Adviser of the World Bank. They discussed how Australia expanded its middle class and the importance of expanding the middle class in general.
Subsequently, it was followed by a presentation by Vivi Alatas, an expert economist, who presented the highlights of the report “Aspiring Indonesia-Expanding the Middle Class”. She highlighted that Indonesian middle class has been a major driver of economic growth with a 12% of annual consumption growth since 2002. Middle class is essential not only because it is economy driver, but also because it is job creator, future taxpayers and also influential for better governance. Vivi then became the moderator for the next panelist session with Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Minister of Finance of Indonesia, and Yenny Wahid, Director of Wahid Institute. Both panelists discussed interesting topics related to good governance, government’s policy and economic growth in Indonesia.
