Streamlining Indonesian Transport SOEs Must Boost Public Services

The streamlining of Indonesia's state-owned transportation companies (BUMN) needs to extend beyond mere structural and business process simplification. The ultimate goal must be to enhance public services and achieve more efficient logistics, ensuring that corporate efficiencies translate into tangible benefits for the public and businesses.

Tulus Abadi, Chairman of the Indonesian Empowered Consumer Forum (FKBI), views the streamlining strategy as relevant, aligning with the core function of SOEs to serve the public. He emphasizes that corporate efficiency and improved service quality can coexist with strong governance and effective transformation strategies. Success, according to Abadi, is reflected in healthy financial performance, increased user satisfaction, faster complaint resolution, and greater contributions to the state.

Abadi supports the consolidation of SOEs in strategic sectors, provided public interest remains paramount. For sectors vital to the public's livelihood, large-scale SOEs can act as instruments for the state to maintain affordable tariffs, ensure service availability, and guarantee infrastructure reliability. However, he stresses the importance of mitigating risks, ensuring that efficiency gains do not burden the public with undue costs.

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Streamlining in public service SOEs is a necessity, as one of the main functions of SOEs is public services. With this pattern, reliable public services and high public satisfaction will be created. However, this is also influenced by the business performance of the SOE, which shows continuously improving corporate performance.

In the medium term, this transformation should lead to reduced logistics costs, ultimately benefiting end-users. Dony Oskaria, Chief Operating Officer of Danantara, highlighted that Danantara's involvement marks a paradigm shift in SOE management. He stated that SOEs are being pushed to become more competitive through innovation, efficiency, and service quality enhancement, rather than relying solely on their state-owned status.

Danantara is currently driving the transformation of SOEs, including those within the Public Services, Transportation, and Connectivity clusters, aiming to create more agile and customer-centric entities. The focus is on ensuring these companies not only operate efficiently but also deliver superior services that meet the evolving needs of the Indonesian public and economy.

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SOEs are encouraged to be more competitive through innovation, efficiency, and service quality improvement, not just relying on their status as state-owned companies.