October 21, 2004

Dr Mari Pangestu, member of the Board of Trustees and former Executive Director of CSIS, has been appointed as Minister of Trade in the new United Indonesia Cabinet. Dr Mari Pangestu (second row from below, far right) is one of the four female ministers in the Cabinet. She is also the first female Chinese Indonesian Minister in the modern history of Indonesia. The United Indonesia Cabinet consists of three coordinating ministers, 19 ministers, 10 state ministers, minister/state secretary, Cabinet secretary, chairperson of national Development Planning Board and Attorney General.

She joined CSIS in 1986 after completing her Ph.D in economics from University of California, Davis. Trade is not an unknown field for Dr Mari Pangestu, since she has conducted research on national and international trade issues for the past 20 years. She is knowledgable on multilateral trade negotiations, multilateral trade systems (WTO), and issues on trade negotiation (WTO).

Dr Mari Pangestu is also active in APEC and the Trade Forum (TF) as the Program Coordinator of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), a private networking organization comprising of 23 member economies in the Asia Pacific region. She is the co-coordinator of the Task Force on Poverty and Development for the United Nations Millennium Project.