BALINEWSID.COM, JAKARTA — Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has stressed the importance of integrity, clear communication and strong execution for health leaders as countries across Southeast Asia undertake major health system reforms.

Budi made the remarks while opening the Health Leadership Course organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Jakarta on Monday (Sept. 28, 2026). The five-day program brings together more than 60 participants from seven Southeast Asian countries to strengthen leadership capacity and support health system reforms across the region.

Budi said integrity is a fundamental quality for any leader, particularly those entrusted with responsibilities affecting public health.

“The best boss I have ever met is someone who has integrity. To make sure that he will not lie to you or your country, he has to be a person of integrity,” Budi said.

He also emphasized the need for leaders to communicate their goals clearly and simply so that they can be understood and implemented throughout an organization.

“As a leader, you have to be able to explain your goals clearly and simply so that everyone can understand them,” he said.

According to Budi, clear goals must then be translated into concrete ways of working. Indonesia’s Ministry of Health has structured its health reform agenda around six pillars: primary health care reform, secondary or hospital care, health system resilience, health financing, health workforce development, and health technology.

The six pillars are aimed at improving life expectancy and healthy life expectancy. One example is the strengthening of primary health care through ADB-supported financing for the procurement of 10,000 ultrasound machines and 10,000 X-ray machines.

Budi also highlighted storytelling as an important leadership skill. Leaders, he said, need to explain why a goal matters, how it can be achieved and what actions are required to reach it.

However, communication and targets must ultimately be followed by execution.

“If you only talk and have targets but do not show how to execute and achieve them, you will lose credibility in front of your members,” Budi said.

ADB: Countries Must Lead Their Own Health Reforms

ADB Director of the Human and Social Development Sector Office Eduardo Banzon said developing member countries should play the leading role in determining the direction of their own health reforms.

He said ADB’s role is to provide financing and technical assistance to support agendas determined by individual countries.

“We are not the kind of institution that comes and dictates to a country, ‘do this’ or ‘do that.’ Our main role is to help finance and provide technical support for things that have been decided by the country,” Eduardo said.

He added that strengthening leadership capacity is increasingly important as health systems undergo rapid changes and reforms.

The Health Leadership Course covers regional collaboration and integration, partnerships with the private sector, digital technologies and other skills needed to guide health reforms.

ADB Country Director for the Indonesia Resident Mission Bobur Alimov said Southeast Asia continues to face a number of health challenges, including an aging population, rising rates of noncommunicable diseases and the health impacts of climate change.

“These challenges cannot be solved by the health sector alone, nor by any single country. They require leaders to work across sectors and across borders, build partnerships and drive change,” Bobur said.

He said Indonesia’s experience in health transformation, including efforts to strengthen primary health care, expand digital health through SATUSEHAT and implement the National Health Insurance program (JKN), could provide valuable lessons for other countries in the region.

“Indonesia’s experience provides many valuable lessons for all of us,” Bobur said.

During the five-day course, participants will discuss key issues in health systems, including governance, health service delivery and financing, climate change and the One Health approach, pandemic prevention and preparedness and response, as well as digital health and innovation.

Participants will also visit the National Brain Center Hospital and several primary health care facilities in Jakarta as part of the program.