STIMULATING ECONOMIC RECOVERY, PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE- INCLUSIVE GROWTH: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES, THE 15TH BMEB INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE SPECIAL ISSUE

2021. The theme of this conference was “Stimulating Economic Recovery, Promoting Sustainable-Inclusive Growth: Challenges and Opportunities”. The BMEB international conference is the traditional conference of the Bank Indonesia and a premier conference on business and economic issues in the Asia-Pacific region. With this annual BMEB conference, the journal stands tall on a range of policy deliberations relating to central banking issues and economic growth in Indonesia and the region. The annual BMEB conference reflects the growing reputation as well as regional and international standing of the BMEB which has risen the ranks to become a Q2 SCOPUS journal. It is also accredited by the ABDC rankings of journals. The 15th conference received 200 submissions. These submissions came from 28 different countries covering five continents. Of the 200 papers, 61.5% of submissions were from authors based in foreign universities while the balance was local author submission. The conference’s acceptance rate was 25%; that is, we selected, through a rigorous review process, only 50 papers. Thirty-one papers were from foreign authors and 19 from local authors. We, the guest editors, chose seven papers that we perceive to be a broad representation of the theme of this conference. In choosing these papers, we kept in mind the potential of these papers to inspire future research. These papers were selected based on the journal’s rigorous review process. First, they were read by the guest editors and authors revised in response to our comments. Second, each paper was presented at the conference and each paper had a discussant. The discussant report was then used to revise the papers further before they were submitted to BMEB. Third, upon submission to BMEB, each paper was reviewed by two expert reviewers, leading to a third round of revisions. The papers were then accepted following this process. In addition to these seven papers, as we did last year as part of the 14th BMEB conference, we decided to also publish the keynote speech entitled “A Reflection of Sustainable Inclusive Growth Post-Pandemic and the Central Bank’s Challenges Beyond Stability”. The keynote speech was presented at the conference by the Governor of Bank Indonesia, Dr. Perry Warjiyo. The keynote speech represents the culture of policy thinking, implementation, and research agenda set out by Bank Indonesia. Dr. Warjiyo’s speech identifies the challenges faced by the global economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic and discusses the resulting opportunities. It concludes EDITORIAL