Sri Mulyani Indrawati - As Finance Minister

As Finance Minister

Sri Mulyani was selected as Indonesian Finance Minister in 2005 by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. One of her first acts was to fire corrupt tax and custom officers in the department. She successfully tackled corruption and initiated reforms in Indonesia's tax and customs office and enjoys a reputation for integrity. She succeeded in increasing direct investment in Indonesia. In 2004, the year President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took office, Indonesia received $4.6 billion in foreign direct investment. The next year, it attracted $8.9 billion.

In 2006, just one year after selected, she was named Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year by Euromoney magazine.

During her tenure in 2007, Indonesia recorded 6.6% economic growth, its highest rate since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. However, growth is down in 2008 to 6% due to the global economic slowdown. In July 2008, Sri Mulyani Indrawati was inaugurated as the Coordinating Minister for the economy, replacing Boediono, who was to head the central bank.

In August 2008, Mulyani was ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 23rd most powerful woman in the world and the most powerful woman in Indonesia. During her tenure as Finance Minister, the country's foreign exchange reserves reached an all-time high of $50 billion. She oversaw a reduction in public debt to about 30% of gross domestic product from 60%, making it easier for Indonesia to sell debt to foreign institutional investors. She also revised incentive structures for civil servants in her ministry and began paying higher salaries to tax officials deemed to be "clean" so they would have less temptation to accept bribes.

In 2007 and 2008, Emerging Markets newspaper selected Sri Mulyani as Asia's Finance Minister of The Year.

After Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was re-elected in 2009, she was re-appointed in her post of Finance Minister. In 2009 the Indonesian economy grew up by 4.5% while many part of the world is in recession. Indonesia is one of just three major emerging economies to grow faster than 4% in 2009. The other two are China and India. Under her supervision, government has managed to increase the number of income taxpayers from 4.35 million individuals to nearly 16 million in the last five years, and tax receipts grew by around 20% each year to more than Rp 600 trillion in 2010.