JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo held his first cabinet meeting on Monday and gave his top four ministers until the end of the week to identify policy changes that would remove growth bottlenecks.
"From the first day, we start working," Widodo said in introductory remarks to the cabinet that were televised live. "There is no need to wait for anything anymore."
Widodo, who was elected president in July, was inaugurated last week. He inducted 34 people into his cabinet on Monday, a mix of technocrats and political appointees from his coalition.
The senior cabinet members are the four coordinating ministers for economics, internal affairs, maritime affairs and human development.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy, faces strong economic headwinds from fiscal and current account deficits, ballooning fuel subsidy costs, and the slowest GDP growth in five years.
Chief Economics Minister Sofyan Djalil said the president wanted to know how the government could make "quicker decisions on delayed" projects.
A lack of roads, ports, electricity and other basic services, along with corrupt bureaucracies, is beginning to disenchant foreign investors, essential for the resource-based economy to grow.
"We need to make it easier (for businesses) to get licences," Djalil told reporters after the cabinet meeting. "Right now, it's harder to get a licence than to build a power plant."
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