The Honorary Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia Retno Marsudi,

The Honorary Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan,

His Excellency the Ambassador of Indonesia to Singapore Suryo Pratomo,

Ladies and gentlemen,

On behalf of Temasek, I would like to thank the Indonesia Embassy in Singapore for organising today’s awards ceremony. By streaming the show online, more people can celebrate the good works that have been done for many and inspire more of us to step up where we can, to do what is necessary.

Today is a special day for all of us. To all Indonesians, we bring you greetings on the 76th anniversary of your declaration of independence.

We thank The Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia for the honour of bestowing on Temasek the Indonesia Independence Day Award.

It is truly a great honour for Temasek to receive this award. It reaffirms the close partnership that we share with Indonesia. We will continue to work with you, both as an investor, but more importantly, as a friend.

On the investment front, Temasek remains optimistic on Indonesia as we continue to see champions emerging from Indonesia. We see opportunities to work with these businesses, potentially investing in them or with them. We have invested steadily in Indonesia over the years. Likewise, several of our portfolio companies such as DBS Bank, Sembcorp Industries and Singtel have had longstanding partnerships and a presence in Indonesia.

In particular, Indonesia’s digital economy holds great promise because of strong fundamentals such as a large population with growing income, and a rapidly developing digital ecosystem.

In 2020, Temasek, together with Google and Bain & Company, issued a report that expressed the view that Indonesia’s digital economy is expected to triple to US$124 billion by 2025.¹ We will update this report in a few months and I expect we will see even more opportunity.

Temasek’s ties with Indonesia go beyond business partnerships. Ours is a deep friendship based on mutual respect, a shared purpose of growing together and helping each other, especially in times of difficulty. This is evident during the current COVID-19 outbreak.

In the early days, when we had large outbreaks affecting our migrant worker population, companies in Indonesia willingly stepped up to help us make cloth face masks for that community. Indonesian businesses also provided us vital equipment for our community care facilities for recovering COVID patients.

Likewise, we partnered in efforts to help communities in our neighbouring Indonesian islands.

Today, Southeast Asia is facing unprecedented challenges caused by the more dangerous Delta variant. None of us is spared. We will need to continue to collaborate and embrace the spirit of partnership that we have seen during this pandemic to help one another wherever the need is. For no one is safe until everyone is safe.

Last month, Temasek Foundation and a group of donors from Indonesia and Singapore provided more than 12,000 oxygenators to Indonesia. Since the start of the pandemic, we have worked with organisations and individuals to provide hand sanitisers, surgical, N95 and reusable masks, gloves, and goggles to Indonesia. Singapore-developed Fortitude diagnostic tests and BluePass automatic contact tracing devices were also provided.

Now and in the coming months, more diagnostics, oxygen equipment and Personal Protective Equipment are being sent to Indonesia.

These partnerships would not have been possible without the support of Indonesia’s Ministry of Health, the Indonesia Embassy in Singapore, and numerous other partners and co-donors in Indonesia and Singapore.

Mr Ambassador, we thank you and your colleagues at the Embassy for working with us on all these initiatives to provide the requisite assistance, so that we can overcome the pandemic together.

The collaboration between the Indonesian government and Temasek Foundation in connecting people and uplifting communities dates back two decades.

Together with Indonesian agencies, the Foundation piloted a rice cultivation programme in Aceh after the 2004 tsunami; to help rice farming communities increase crop yield in areas inundated with salt water.

The Foundation has been actively supporting capability and capacity building programmes in Indonesia since 2007; in the areas of education, health, public administration & governance, crisis response, networking and sustainability.

Other examples include the training of master builders in low cost methods of strengthening existing walls and housing, which helped protect houses and buildings from collapse during earthquakes; and cross learning programmes for both countries to grow and thrive in a global and digitised world. This is our attempt to catalyse bilateral and multilateral collaborations in the e-commerce sector in Indonesia and with SEA.

Looking ahead, the Foundation will continue to look for innovative programmes to further deepen partnerships in Indonesia. Some initial ideas include enhancing disaster management capabilities and promoting nature-based carbon solutions.

As I conclude my remarks today, I would like to reiterate, on behalf of all the people of Temasek, our deep appreciation and honour to be given this award.

We are grateful for our partnership with Indonesia and look forward to many more years of working together.

Terima Kasih dan Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan.
(In English: Thank you and happy Independence Day)

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¹ https://economysea.withgoogle.com/