Indonesia will build trustworthy commodity exchange, chief supervisor candidate Sarjito says
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Indonesia is the world’s biggest exporter of thermal coal, palm oil and nickel. It is also a major supplier of tin, copper, bauxite, and coffee beans.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Indonesia plans to start a minerals and strategic commodity exchange on Jan 1 to better control commodity prices.
- Sarjito, the President’s nominee to regulate commodity trading, emphasised the need for a transparent and trustworthy market to gain trader confidence.
- The regulator OJK and stakeholders must work together immediately to ensure the exchange is trusted from its first transaction, Sarjito said.
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JAKARTA – Indonesia’s upcoming minerals and strategic commodity exchange would be built with infrastructure that can be trusted, the president’s nominee to regulate commodity trading said on Aug 24.
The commodity bourse is set to start operations on Jan 1, in a move by the government of the resource-rich country to better influence prices of its commodities.
Indonesia is the world’s biggest exporter of thermal coal, palm oil and nickel. It is also a major supplier of tin, copper, bauxite, and coffee beans.
“People will always assess the market, whether it is transparent, fair, orderly, liquid, or not,” Sarjito said at a “fit-and-proper” hearing conducted by Parliament’s financial committee for the role, which will supervise and regulate trading at the new bourse.
“If the market is not deep, has no integrity, industry players and traders would not trust it,” said Sarjito, who goes by one name. He is President Prabowo Subianto’s sole candidate for the position of chief supervisor of commodity trading at the financial services authority, which is known locally as OJK.
Sarjito, who retired in 2024 as the OJK’s deputy commissioner of consumer protection, the highest position for a bureaucrat at the authority, needs parliamentary approval to secure the new role.
He told lawmakers that the OJK as the regulator, the bourse, clearing agencies, warehouses and other stakeholders must immediately work to build market trust.
“The exchange does not have to become huge on its first day, but it has to be trusted from the first transaction,” he said. REUTERS
