Public Health is Key to Economic Recovery, President Jokowi Says

Public health is the key to Indonesia’s economic recovery, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said.

“Good health will lead to good economy, meaning that the Government should prioritize public health and COVID-19 handling as it is the key,” President Jokowi said during a Plenary Cabinet Meeting on Health and Economic Recovery at the State Palace, Jakarta, Monday (7/9).

Therefore, President Jokowi reminded his Cabinet to stay focused on COVID-19 mitigation and put public health above anything else as the economic recovery could only begin once public health has been restored.

In the meantime, Chairperson of the Working Committee for COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery (PC-PEN) Airlangga Hartarto said the Government would focus on strategies to reduce the risk of economic contraction in Q3 and Q4 of 2020, especially by optimizing the potential budget that may not be absorbed by reallocating it to programs that can be implemented and completed this year for national economic recovery.

According to Airlangga, the results of monitoring and evaluation of the PEN programs were running quite well.

He added the two most recently launched programs namely the Presidential Assistance’s Productive Micro Enterprise (BPUM) launched on 24 August 2020 and the Salary Subsidy Assistance launched on 27 August 2020 have been running very well. (TGH/EN)

Translated by: Estu Widyamurti
Reviewed by: M. Ersan Pamungkas