Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti – Keynote Speaker

International award winning Prof. Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti has had deep involvement the social, political and business world in Indonesia all the way from the 1970s up to now. He has played a pivotal role in business, foreign affairs (including UN reforms), education, and financial crisis management. Dorodjatun has held ministerial and ambassadorial positions including Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs.

Prof. Dorodjatun, age 74, graduated from the University of Indonesia specializing in Monetary Economics and Public Finance, and from the University of California at Berkeley with a PhD specializing in Political-Economy of Development. He was also awarded Doctor Honoris Causa in Management by the Technology University of Malaysia (UTM), at Johor, Malaysia, in 2003. In June 2011 he was given the honor as a Visiting Professor at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and a Visiting Scholar at Guangdong Research Institute for International Strategies (GRIIS) for the period up to June 2014.

After serving as a member of policy research team in the Department of Foreign Affairs; assigned to the Director General of Foreign Economic Relations, in the period of 1992-1995, Dorodjatun was appointed as a Senior Expert for Economic and Social Affairs in the Executive Body of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). (President Suharto was then the Chair of NAM). Consecutively, he was appointed as a consultant to Indonesia’s Pacific Business Forum (PBF), which was later reconstituted as a semi-government ABAC or APEC Business Advisory Council of Indonesia. In the period of 1994-1997 he served as advisor to Indonesia’s AEBF (ASEM Economic Business Forum).

Financial Crisis Management

As the country was severely hit by the Asian Financial Crisis; and as the crisis metamorphosed into a turbulent multi-dimensional crisis, Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti was assigned by President Soeharto as Indonesias’ Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States in March 1998, consecutively to the Caribbean states of Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Commonwealth of Dominica. He was also instructed to consult regularly with IMF, World Bank, the Fed Reserve and the US Treasury.

When President Suharto resigned in May 1998, following the rioting in Jakarta and several cities calling for his ouster, the assignment was renewed by President B.J. Habibie (1998-1999), then by President Abdurahman Wahid (1999-2001). Immediately after returning to Indonesia he was appointed as Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs in President Megawati Soekarnoputri’s Cabinet (2001-2004). In this turbulent period of crisis and Reformasi his task remained to join in the efforts to turn-around Indonesia’s economy, in close coordination with Bank Indonesia, IMF and World Bank and the Consultative Group for Indonesia (CGI)- which consisted of creditor countries and multilateral organisations.

United Nations Reform

In 2005, together with Indonesia’s most senior diplomat and long-serving Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Ali Alatas, Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti was appointed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as Co-Chair of Panel 45 to formulate Indonesia’s position with regard to the United Nations reform, which was submitted at the United Nations General Assembly of September 2005. In 2006, he was appointed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as member of the Board of Governance of the National Resilience Institute (LEMHANNAS) – formerly National Defense Institute for the period of 2006 -2010. In 2011 he was reappointed by the Minister of National Education as Emeritus Professor at the University of Indonesia for the period of 2011-2014. (The first appointment was for the period of 2005-2010).

Academic History

In the academia, Dorodjatun served at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Indonesia, from the year 1962 on, starting as a Teaching Assistant until he reached the position of Dean in 1994-1997; also as a Research Assistant in 1963 until he reached the position of Senior Research Associate, then the Director of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (LPEM) in 1992- the oldest research institute in Indonesia. In the long period of over 4 decades he has taught various courses, all the way from the undergraduate to the graduate level, covering theories, economic history, Indonesia’s policy issues, and political-economy issues of development. In the last two years he also lectured at the newly established Indonesia Defense University (Unhan) on the subjects of Defense Economics and Comparative Economic System. In 2013 he was also invited to be a Commissioner of the First Murdoch Commission/Murdoch University, to map west Australia’s long-term strategy of active participation in the affairs of the Indo-Pacific Region.

Honours

Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti was honored inside and outside Indonesia, among others: Chancellor’s Distinguished Honour Award of the University of California at Berkeley, USA (1998), Medal for Distinguished and Loyal Service of 30 years in the Government of Indonesia (Satyalencana Karya Satya) (2002), The Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award of the UCB, USA (2002), Medal of Honor of Mahaputera Adipradana presented by Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on behalf of the Republic of Indonesia (2005), Medal of Honor of The Order of The Rising Star, Gold and Silver Star, from His Majesty The Emperor of Japan, presented by PM Hatoyama (2010), and as “Vogel Distinguished Visitor” of Harvard University Asia Center (2013).