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The Indonesian business community welcomed reports on Friday that the Group of 20 nations would replace the Group of Eight as the top global economic forum, saying it was time that emerging markets played a major role in the world economy.

However, local business leaders were less upbeat about a G-20 plan to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels, predicting that the resulting energy-price rises could cause problems at home because of the country’s high poverty rate.

Erwin Aksa, chairman of the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (Hipmi), said the plan to establish the G-20 as the primary global economic forum was a remarkable step.

“The most important thing for the world economy is global coordination,” Erwin said. “And I think the G-20 is proving this by helping to plan the recovery from the recent global recession.”

Eric Sugandhi, an analyst at Standard Chartered Bank’s Indonesian unit, said the decision to replace the G-8 with the G-20 was a positive one.

“There has been a shift in economic and political power from the West to the East over the past few years,” he said. “Emerging nations like China, India and Indonesia are becoming too important to be left off the world stage. For instance, China is now the biggest holder of US Treasuries and has huge gold stockpiles. Indonesia, meanwhile, has also weathered the global economic crisis.”

Bambang Priambodo, director of macroeconomic planning at the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), said the country would play an important role in the G-20 forum.

“We can become the voice of the developing world and deal with issues such as poverty, lack of infrastructure and low foreign-exchange reserves,” he said.

But Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, an economist at the state-run Danareksa Research Institute, said he was not happy about the G-20’s plan to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels.

Many G-20 governments, including Indonesia, provide tax breaks and direct subsidies to companies and consumers to encourage the production of coal, oil and other resources that contribute to greenhouse-gas emissions.

“That’s not the G-20’s business,” Purbaya said.

The United States and European Union have pressed developing countries to stop subsidizing fossil fuels. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Friday that consensus was building to phase out the subsidies over time, although no definite date had yet been agreed upon.