Yudhoyono has a new job: ‘Taking care of the earth’

JAKARTA, Indonesia (UPDATED) – Outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has accepted an offer to be nominated as president of the assembly at Seoul-based international environmental organization Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI).

“I have a new task… taking care of the earth,” he told reporters while waiting for the GGGI delegation to arrive at his office on Tuesday, September 9, which incidentally is also his 65th birthday. 

Indonesia is one of the 18 founding member countries of GGGI, an intergovernmental organization founded in South Korea in 2010 to support and promote a new model of economic growth known as “green growth.”

“I cannot think of anyone better to lead this institution than President Yudhoyono of Indonesia,” GGGI director general Yvo de Boer said in a press conference following the meeting.  

De Boer said GGGI was created to address the challenge of lifting people out of poverty while preserving the natural resources of this planet.

“This country, as you know, has experienced rapid economic growth but is also confronted with serious environmental challenges,” he said, referring to Indonesia.

“In that sense, President Yudhoyono, for me, represents the dilemma I talked  about earlier, and his leadership equips us in an excellent way, to help us to engage world leaders on how we can define, discover a model of economic growth that lifts people out of poverty, but recognizes environmental challenges at the same time.”

Yudhoyono, whose second term as president of Indonesia ends on October 20, accepted the offer to be nominated as president of the assembly, the supreme organ of GGGI. 

“As president of GGGI, he’s expected to lead meetings, introduce its mission, and raise international support,” Presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah explained. 

 

De Boer said an election would be held in Seoul on November 13. This would likely be a formality, as is the norm with international organizations.

“The appointment will be for a two-year period,” he said, but added that Yudhoyono would not have to live in the Korean capital. “He can stay anywhere he wants, but a few weeks every year he has to lead our organization to engage with other leaders.”

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha previously said Yudhoyono had also been offered positions at the the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) and the Japan-Indonesia Association, but that the outgoing president was keen on GGGI. – Rappler.com