Publications & Documents

The Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India is a regular publication on regional economic growth and development in Emerging Asia. It focuses on the economic conditions of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. It also addresses relevant economic issues in China and India to fully reflect developments in the region. This Update presents the region’s economic outlook, depicting rapidly changing trends and macroeconomic challenges amidst external headwinds.

This report presents the policy recommendations resulting from the National Dialogue on Water in Indonesia, which took place between June 2022 and March 2023. Getting water resources management right, underpinned with appropriate financing mechanisms, is a prerequisite for realising Indonesia’s ambitious national economic growth agenda to become one of the top five global economies by 2045. The Dialogue, therefore, centred around two priority areas: 1) financing water infrastructure and 2) non-structural measures for flood disaster risk reduction. The report explores several instruments to enhance the financing of water services in Indonesia, such as the advantages and disadvantages of uniform water tariffs, independent economic regulation, pollution charges and demand management instruments. The report recommends the utilisation of land value capture as an additional source of financing. It also explores how water information systems for disaster response, flood forecasting and early warning can reduce flood disaster risk. The National Dialogue on Water in Indonesia is part of a regional initiative with the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea, the Asia Water Council and the OECD.

Appropriately designed Product Market Regulation (PMR) is essential to enhance productivity, boost economic growth and increase welfare. Regulation is needed to address market failures and guarantee the health and safety of consumers. However, by limiting the entry and expansion of firms, a too stringent regulatory environment can hinder an efficient allocation of resources both within and across industries. This paper provides a detailed review of PMR in Indonesia and analyses the country’s performance in this area relative to OECD countries, other G-20 members and regional peers. To do so, it relies on the OECD’s PMR Indicators, which have been recently compiled for Indonesia. These indicators assess the extent to which the regulatory framework of a country is competition-friendly across a range of sectors and regulatory areas. The analysis reveals that PMR in Indonesia is less conducive to competition than in most OECD countries. The scope for improvement is particularly great in areas such as barriers in network sectors, command-and-control regulation, public procurement, the governance of State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) and the extent to which the impact on competition is assessed when designing new regulation. The paper proposes concrete policy measures to align the regulatory environment of Indonesia with that of best performing countries.

Regulatory reforms have long been a focus for Southeast Asian nations, often as a way to improve the business climate and policy frameworks for trade and investment. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has spurred countries around the world to review and update their regulatory policies to respond to the current crisis and prepare for the next one. This publication presents a snapshot of the current state of regulatory reform across the region, with country profiles from all 10 Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) highlighting practices in three priority areas: whole-of-government initiatives, good regulatory practices, and use of digital technologies. It also offers an analysis of common themes identified across the profiles, including trends in regulatory reform, common challenges faced by countries, and future priorities in the region. It was developed in collaboration with the members of the ASEAN-OECD Good Regulatory Practices Network, and key regional partners including the ASEAN Secretariat and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).

Indonesia is the world’s fourth-most populous country and is set to become the world’s fourth-largest economy by mid-century. The choices that Indonesia makes now and in the decades to come will have a significant bearing on the world’s energy markets and on international efforts to reach collective climate goals. Indonesia, a member of the IEA family since 2015, has committed to reach net zero emissions by 2060 or before – an ambitious task given the country’s growth objectives and status as a globally important consumer and producer of coal. However, with a transition to net zero offering extensive and varied economic opportunities, Indonesia is beginning to put in place the policies and frameworks that can help reach this target while moving towards advanced economy status. To assist in this critical task, the IEA – at the request of the Government of Indonesia and to coincide with Indonesia’s Presidency of the G20 – has developed a comprehensive roadmap to net zero by 2060 for the country, which charts a path for the country’s energy transition over the coming decades. The analysis in the Energy Sector Roadmap to Net Zero Emissions in Indonesia spans key areas such as people‑centred transitions, the phasing down of coal use, investment and financing needs, and critical minerals. It also sets out a high-ambition pathway in which Indonesia reaches net zero by 2050. The project has been conducted in close collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Indonesia.

This report was prepared on the basis of the framework for collaboration established by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) of Indonesia on the topic of power system enhancement and renewable energy integration, and in support of the implementation of the upcoming Presidential Decree on renewable energy. It is part of the assistance provided by the IEA towards Indonesia’s efforts to reform its energy sector and is consistent with IEA’s forthcoming Energy Sector Roadmap to Net Zero Emissions in Indonesia. The overarching objective of the assignment was to assist Indonesia in tackling short-term power system challenges, by achieving key targets such as reaching a 23% share of renewable energy in the national electricity mix by 2025 in a secure and affordable fashion, and by making grids progressively smarter. The assignment included the organisation of a number of workshops for Indonesian stakeholders and a techno-economic study performed by the IEA. It benefited from the support of the state-owned utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN). This public report summarises the information gathered from the workshops and presents the results of the study in a set of recommendations for Indonesia.

In recent years, Indonesia has undergone major economic, social and political transformations. Given the significant emigration of the Indonesian population and the recognition of the contributions of the diaspora, Indonesian authorities are seeking to better understand this pool of talent residing abroad, which has great potential to contribute to the economic and social development of Indonesia. This review provides the first comprehensive portrait of the Indonesian diaspora in OECD countries. By profiling Indonesian emigrants, this review aims to strengthen knowledge about this community and thus help to consolidate the relevance of the policies deployed by Indonesia towards its emigrants.

Under Action 14, countries have committed to implement a minimum standard to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the mutual agreement procedure (MAP). The MAP is included in Article 25 of the OECD Model Tax Convention and commits countries to endeavour to resolve disputes related to the interpretation and application of tax treaties. The Action 14 Minimum Standard has been translated into specific terms of reference and a methodology for the peer review and monitoring process. The peer review process is conducted in two stages. Stage 1 assesses countries against the terms of reference of the minimum standard according to an agreed schedule of review. Stage 2 focuses on monitoring the follow-up of any recommendations resulting from jurisdictions' stage 1 peer review report. This report reflects the outcome of the stage 2 peer monitoring of the implementation of the Action 14 Minimum Standard by Indonesia.