The Director of Cooperation at the University of Indonesia and Researcher of SOEs Research Group LMFEUI, Totok Pranoto, estimated that the net profit of 20 SOEs listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange decreased by around 25.3% to Rp96 trillion over 202 trillion compared to the previous year of Rp128 trillion. The low net profit achievement was affected by a decrease in SOEs' operating revenues by around 3.44% to Rp1,847 trillion from Rp1,913 trillion.

"This is our estimate of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the profits and income of 20 SOEs," said Totok in the online event Prospect BUMN 2021 as PEN Locomotive and Sovereign Wealth Fund, Thursday (4/3).

According to him, in general, SOEs' overall performance has continued to record positive results in recent years. However, compared to the region, the SOEs need to improve their performance to compete with Temasek (Singapore) and SASAC (China).

"To strengthen the competitiveness of SOEs in the future, the government can do a number of things, such as increasing the number of SOEs included in the category of contributors, carrying out a restructuring (spin-off) for SOEs that are not healthy internally (financially) and their contribution to the public sector is minimal, and The spin-off is expected to make the span of control of the Ministry of BUMNs slimmer, "he explained.

Totok suggested strengthening regulations related to institutional aspects, government, corporate actions, and holding company issues to support the achievement of the ideal conditions for SOEs.