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Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Thursday that accelerating economic growth this year should provide momentum to push ahead with further economic reforms, while acknowledging that change was sometimes painful and could create “sparks.”

Sri Mulyani told a seminar held by Citigroup that some of the government’s major challenges this year included pushing ahead with reforming civil institutions as well as removing obstacles to economic growth.

“The president’s theme this year is de-bottlenecking and acceleration,” Sri Mulyani said.

This included reforming key institutions such as the Attorney General’s Office, the Supreme Court and the National Police and developing infrastructure, she said.

Indonesia’s gross domestic product rose by 4.5 percent in 2009, making it one of the better-performing economies in the world. Analysts are confident that the country’s economy can accelerate to between 5.5 percent and 6 percent this year.

Sri Mulyani, who has been finance minister since 2005, has a reputation as a business-friendly reformer. “Reforms sometimes cause pain in the short term” but they were necessary if the country wanted a stable and transparent bureaucracy, she said.

She has tackled graft in the Finance Ministry and has been particularly active in going after businesses that do not pay their taxes.

This has drawn the ire of powerful businessman and politician Aburizal Bakrie, the chairman of the Golkar Party, who has been stung by allegations that some Bakrie group companies have evaded taxes.

Since late last year, Sri Mulyani has come under pressure for her role in approving the government’s bailout of Bank Century, with some parties calling for her impeachment. The rising tensions triggered by an investigation into the bailout have eroded her political capital as she seeks to push through more reforms.

However, foreign investors still favor Sri Mulyani and Vice President Boediono, another reformer, said Johanna Chua, a Singapore-based Citibank analyst.

“I think the worst is over,” Johanna said.

Although the Bank Century investigation generated a lot of political nose it has not affected bullish market sentiment about Indonesia, Joanna said.

“Of course, foreign investors really want Sri Mulyani and Boediono to stay,” she said. “They are the bastions of economic reform. And the more SBY [President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] supports them, the more confident foreign investors become.”

Eep Syaifulloh Fatah, the founder of the consultancy Political Marketing Indonesia, said he thought Sri Mulyani was unlikely to be impeached, at least this year, because the impeachment process can take as long as two years.

Johanna said that even if the political turmoil resulted in the removal of Sri Mulyani or Boediono, it would not pose a serious problem if Indonesia’s underlying economic fundamentals remained sound.

“It’s not so much about the people but about the underlying momentum,” she said.