Jakarta. Indonesia is sending its top officials and business leaders to the 2020 World Economic Forum, or WEF, Summit in Davos, Switzerland, this week to discuss with world leaders a shared agenda of tackling the climate crisis and achieving sustainable economic growth while also trying to sway some of them to invest more in the country's digital economy.  

Around 3,000 heads of state, top executives of global companies, leaders of political organizations, inventors and journalists from 90 countries are set to congregate in the Alpine town for one of the world's largest and most high-level economic conferences this year.

The Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan is leading the Indonesian contingent to Davos, which also includes Communication and Information Technology Minister Johnny G. Plate, Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Wishnutama Kusubandio and Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) head Bahlil Lahadalia.

Indonesian businesses will be represented by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) chairman Rosan Perkasa Roeslani, Traveloka co-founder Albert Zhang and Grab Indonesia president director Ridzki Kramadibrata.

The summit, which will run from Jan. 21 to Jan. 24, comes hot on the heels of a series of devastating natural disasters – from massive bushfires in Australia to floods and landslides in Jakarta – that shifted the spotlight of the world to climate change and how time is running out to reverse its effects. 

WEF founder Klaus Schwab said the Davos summit presented the right opportunity to show leadership in dealing with climate change. In his summit invitation, Schwab asked all companies attending the summit to commit to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The summit's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said humanity needs to cut carbon dioxide emissions by around 45 percent from 2010's levels in ten years to reach net-zero in 2050 and avoid raising global temperatures by 1.5-2 degrees Celsius. 

"The World Economic Forum's 2020 Global Risks Report ranks biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse as one of the top five threats humanity will face in the next ten years," WEF said in a statement.

"Human societies and economies rely on biodiversity in fundamental ways. Our research shows that $44 trillion of economic value generation – over half of the world’s total GDP – is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services," the forum said. 

Contributing to the discussion on environmental issues, Indonesian activist Melati Widjesen and Bali-based French filmmaker Gary Bencheghib will share their experiences cleaning up Indonesian rivers and oceans from plastic pollution on Wednesday.

More Digital Investment, Please

Apart from discussing environmental issues, the government will also seek to persuade more global companies to invest in Indonesia.

Minister Johnny, for example, is scheduled to meet with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Abdullah Alswaha, YouTube chief executive Susan Wojcicki, Google Cloud chief executive Thomas Kurian, Google Asia Pacific president Scott Beaumont and Qualcomm president Cristiano R. Amon. 

The minister will also take part in a talk show "to convey the government's views related to support for the digital economy through regulation and development of the digital ecosystem," ministry spokesman Ferdinandus Setu said in a statement on Monday. 

BKPM head Bahlil meanwhile will hold one-on-one meetings with executives of Jumeirah Hotel, Amazon, Grab, Traveloka, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Mizuho, Yili Group and Siemens Group. 

Bahlil plans to ask the multinational companies to boost their investment in Indonesia, Farah Indriani, BKPM's deputy for promotion, said in a statement. 

"The government will also invite financial institutions to take part in Indonesian sovereign wealth funds," Farah said.

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