JAKARTA -- Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir is optimistic that state-owned companies can make positive profits by the end of 2023. He estimates that profits from all profitable state-owned enterprises (BUMN) will reach IDR 250 trillion this year .

"Despite the pressure on commodity prices which continue to decline, we can achieve BUMN profits of IDR 250 trillion," said Erick Thohir early last week.

The sources of BUMN profits include the efficiency of capital expenditure and operational costs. Profits too, said Erick Thohir, include all BUMNs in holdings such as PTPN.

With this profit, Erick said that BUMN's contribution to the country in the form of dividends is guaranteed to remain optimal. However, he was reluctant to provide details of the BUMN that contributed to the dividend because he had to wait for the audit results.

A number of state-owned companies such as BRI, BNI, Pertamina, Bank Mandiri, Mind.id and Bank BTN recorded good performance in 2023. BUMNs that have previously recorded negative performance have now turned positive since the transformation process was carried out.

In 2022, Erick Thohir admitted that BUMN profits would be above IDR 300 trillion. Erick argued that the high profit last year could not be separated from the profit resulting from the restructuring of Garuda Indonesia.

Garuda Indonesia is a state-owned company that operates in the aviation sector. Now, Garuda's financial books are recorded as positive.