Video: Lower Oil Price Brings Mixed Results for an Indonesia in Transition

For Indonesia, lower commodity prices have had mixed results. Government revenues from oil, natural gas coal and other minerals have fallen, but lower prices have also helped the Southeast Asian net importer. Widhyawan Prawiraatmadja, the head of the performance management unit in the country’s ministry of energy and natural resources, discusses the significance of economic reform under new president Joko Widodo, building generation capacity, renewable energy development and scrapping fuel subsidies at NRGI’s annual conference in June. Prawiraatmadja tells NRGI’s Patrick Heller that oil and gas are “always intertwined with politics” and that the new government made a bold move in reducing subsidies for diesel and gasoline.