Formas Expert: Global Challenges a Test for Indonesia

The Indonesia Emas Forum (Formas) held a National Dialogue to formulate concrete policy recommendations for the government in facing global uncertainty at the Tarumanagara University campus in Jakarta on Friday afternoon (17/7/2026). The scientific forum, chaired by Formas Expert Council Chairman Serian Wijatno, carried the theme “Testing Indonesia’s Economic Resilience Amidst Global Turbulence: Resilient or Vulnerable?”. Speakers included economists Piter Abdullah, Hendri Saparini, Anthony Budiawan, and Wijayanto Samirin, and was attended by Tarumanagara University Rector Ahmad Sudiro, along with a number of business figures and national academics. In his opening remarks, Serian Wijatno, who is also a social and community observer, likened the current economic situation to a ship weathering a storm on the high seas due to geopolitical conflicts, technological disruption, and weakening public purchasing power. “There is a wise saying that a calm sea never made a skilled sailor,” he said in a statement to the media in Jakarta on Saturday (18/7/2026), using the metaphor to describe the current economic conditions. He stressed that these global challenges are a real test for national economic resilience. Therefore, he continued, the dialogue was deliberately designed to be critical in order to produce economic policy recommendations that are realistic, clear, and can be immediately acted upon by policymakers, rather than merely being academic discourse or theoretical discussion. Echoing this sentiment, Formas Chairman Yohanes Handojo Budhisedjati explained in his introduction that the initiative was taken in response to the phase of economic instability and inflation that is beginning to trigger a recession in various domestic sectors.