Jakarta, June 23 -- Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has announced plans to dissolve up to 800 underperforming state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in a sweeping efficiency drive to curb massive state losses and eliminate corruption.

Speaking on Tuesday during the closing ceremony of a Nahdlatul Ulama conference in Bangkalan, East Java, Prabowo admitted his surprise at discovering that Southeast Asia's largest economy operates more than 1,000 state-run business entities.

"Our end goal is to dissolve 800 state companies, more or less. Well, we will aim for a minimum of 700 entities," Prabowo said in an address livestreamed by the Presidential Secretariat.

The president defended the aggressive restructuring, framing it as a vital strategy...