Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto told Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Monday how his country’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek had inspired Indonesia to set up Danantara.

Prabowo is on his first state visit to the neighboring nation and Indonesia’s biggest foreign investor. Speaking in a joint press conference, Prabowo said that there was nothing wrong with Indonesia copying other countries’ best practices, as the retired army general tried to nudge Temasek into partnering with Danantara.

Singapore's Temasek boasts a net portfolio of 389 billion Singaporean dollars ($303 billion) as of March 2024. This investment giant reported that 53 percent of its portfolio comprised companies headquartered in Singapore, followed by China (13 percent), India (5 percent). Indonesia officially launched Danantara in late February, and the government claimed that the fund’s assets could surpass $1 trillion. This fund currently targets Indonesia-based projects.

“In school, we are not allowed to copy our friends’ homework or [during] exams. But in real life, why not copy best practices, right? It's called copying with pride,” Prabowo said, while praising Singapore for having initiated “many successful policies”.

“[An] achievement of Singapore that we copy with pride is your sovereign wealth fund: Temasek. … Danantara’s name actually means the future energy of Indonesia. So we are doing this for [our] future generation,” Prabowo said.

The Prabowo-Wong talks saw the announcements of some memoranda of understanding (MoUs). Three revolved around the green economy, while one document sees Singapore possibly providing agricultural technology for Indonesia. Both sides also unveiled the joint report on the bilateral economic cooperation on investment, manpower, transport, among others. None of the documents specifically focused on Danantara. 

However, Prabowo unveiled Indonesia’s intentions to have Danantara strike a deal with Temasek on renewable energy. He also mentioned the development of the sustainable industrial zones in Riau’s Batam, Bintan, and Karimun as a potential area for cooperation. These three regions are included within the scope of work of one of the signed green economy MoUs.

“We look forward to close collaboration between Temasek and Danantara in all sectors, especially on renewable energy, sustainable industrial zones, the development of Batam, Bintan, and Karimun on the low-carbon energy sectors and critical infrastructure,” Prabowo said.

Wong did not comment on Danantara nor Temasek. However, the Singaporean politician called the green economy as “one new promising area” as work went underway for the neighbors to engage in cross-border clean electricity trade. He added: “Our work on the green economy reinforces our already robust and multifaceted economic ties”.

Since its inception, the Indonesian fund has been open to international partners. Danantara and Qatar Investment Authority have established a $4 billion joint fund aimed at financing renewable energy and industrial processing. Danantara’s boss, Rosan Roeslani, claimed that similar deals with Malaysia, China, and Japan were in the pipeline.  

Danantara now encompasses 844 state-run enterprises, including the country's only electricity provider, PLN, and oil giant Pertamina. During its launch, Prabowo announced that Danantara would put around $20 billion in highly strategic projects such as Indonesia’s nickel and bauxite processing in its first round of investments.