The state as a patient capitalist: growth and transformation of Indonesia’s development financiers

State activism is strengthening in the Indonesian economy. One major aspect of this recent strengthening is the government’s mobilisation of public entities to provide patient capital for development projects. Joko Widodo’s government (2014–2019) has injected a significant amount of capital into these development ‘financiers’ across diverse sectors. This strategy has served as the government’s response to the shrinking external development finance, the underdeveloped domestic capital market, and the limitations of Indonesia’s former development model. Along with a notable expansion in the size of development financiers, significant transformation of missions, targets, and policy tools has occurred over a short time span. More precisely, Indonesia’s major development financiers have begun to focus on accelerating strategic infrastructure development and industrialisation and supporting state enterprises in related areas. On top of dealing with immediate development challenges, the growth and transformation of development financiers have also had an effect of expanding the government’s policy space. The Indonesian government now has a greater capacity to autonomously mobilise public capital to fund development projects.