Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto is set to launch Danantara, the state-owned investment super holding that will be the Indonesian equivalent to Singapore’s Temasek, later this month.

The much-awaited superholding will start off with $20 billion in initial funding.

Work is underway for Indonesia’s second sovereign wealth fund. The country’s lawmakers recently revised a law on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) -- an amendment that could pave the way for Danantara. This superholding will manage multibillion-dollar assets belonging to state-run businesses. Speaking virtually at Dubai’s World Governments Summit, Prabowo revealed that Indonesia would officially launch Danantara on Feb. 24 after a series of delays. The retired army general is also banking on Danantara to put Indonesia on track towards his 8 percent growth goal.

“According to our initial evaluations, Danantara’s assets under management will exceed $900 billion. … This fund will invest our natural resources and state assets into sustainable, high-impact projects,” Prabowo told the conference.

Some of these high-impact projects will include renewable energy and downstream industries, to name a few. Indonesia has set out a grand plan to develop the domestic production of its commodities, including critical minerals -- an economic policy that the country has been pushing since Former President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration. Danantara will also invest the state assets in food production and advanced manufacturing. 

“All these projects will contribute to achieving our committed target of 8 percent economic growth,” Prabowo said.

“The [name] Danantara means the future energy of Indonesia. … The initial investment cash fund this year will be $20 billion. This will be transformative and we plan to start with 15-20 multibillion-dollar projects which will create a significant value added for us,” Prabowo said.

For context, Prabowo wants to unlock an 8 percent economic growth within his term. This is quite an ambitious target, considering that the Indonesian economy only expanded 5.03 percent. 

Danantara’s launch has seen some postponements in the past. Indonesia originally planned to inaugurate the superholding in early November, not long after Prabowo’s swear-in ceremony. The plan continued to get delayed with the government saying that it was still waiting for the necessary regulatory framework. Prabowo’s statement also meant that the launch would take place quite earlier than the latest deadline. Deputy SOE Minister Kartika Wirjoatmodjo said a few days ago that Danantara was set for launch in March.

The country at present already has a sovereign wealth fund: the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA), which was founded under Former President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in 2021. Reports showed that Danantara would manage assets of SOEs, including banks Mandiri and BNI,  state utility PLN, oil and gas company Pertamina, mining giant MIND ID, and telecommunications company Telkom. There are also plans to have Danantara consolidate the $10.5 billion sovereign wealth fund INA under its wings.

According to media reports, Pandu Sjahrir, the founding partner of the venture capital firm AC Ventures, will reportedly join the top brass of Danantara. Pandu is the nephew of Former Chief Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.