"Last week, I met with President (Barack) Obama at an APEC meeting in Lima, Peru, and he said `A campaign is a campaign but it will be different when a policy is made (after the election)," Kalla said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla appealed to businessmen in the country not to be pessimistic over the global situation following Donald Trumps election.

"Last week, I met with President (Barack) Obama at an APEC meeting in Lima, Peru, and he said A campaign is a campaign but it will be different when a policy is made (after the election)," the vice president said before hundreds of business persons at the CEO Global Forbes Conference at Hotel Shangrila on Wednesday evening.

His statement was in the context of uncertainty in the current global economy due to various geo-political factors, including the election of Donald Trump as the new US president. Trump had made a strong anti-global trade pitch during campaigning.

After hearing President Obamas remarks about Trump, Kalla stated that developing countries, including Indonesia, are the most affected, by this uncertainty.

"I agreed and said that was all good, but I need to know clearly how wide this gap (between campaign rhetoric and Trumps real policy) would be," he added, further narrating his interaction with the outgoing US president.

In response, Kalla recalled, President Obama termed it a difficult question to answer but put the probability of such difference being more or less than 50 percent.

Besides meeting with President Obama at the APEC summit, Kalla also met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who had just returned from New York after meeting Trump.

Sharing President Obamas views, Abe also asked Indonesia not to be too pessimistic regarding the current global uncertainty.

"Therefore, as businessmen, you must be optimistic and you have demonstrated it by your presence here to discuss the ways in which you can cooperate to make the world better inspite of what analysts had to say about the future," he observed.

The CEO Global Forces Conference held by Media Forbes from November 29-December 1, is being attended 400 business people from various global companies that have offices in Indonesia and elsewhere in the world, including ten CEOs from Indonesian companies such as CT Corp, Lippo Group and Mayapada Group.

The conference is also being attended by the head of the Capital Investment Coordinating Board, Thomas Lembong, and the deputy chairman for foreign cooperation of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Shinta Kamdani.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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