President Jokowi: Gov’t Maintains Balance in COVID-19 Handling
President Joko Widodo. Photo by: Press Bureau of Presidential Secretariat
In the last seven months the Government has made its best effort to fight COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic that has hit at least 215 countries requires the Government to act quickly in managing the balance between handling the pandemic and economic recovery.
President Joko Jokowi” Widodo delivered his remarks on Saturday (3/10), reiterating that from the beginning, the public health is the Government’s top priority. “The Public health is still number one and must be prioritized,” the President said.
Along with the priority, the Government is also taking measures to minimize the economic impact caused by the pandemic. Making public health a priority, the President emphasized, does not mean sacrificing the economic sector, especially if it is related to the peoples life.
“If we sacrifice the economy, we sacrifice the lives of tens of millions of people. This is not an option we can take. Once again, we have to find the right balance,” the President said.
During these months, the Government has always tried to obtain and maintain the balance through the measures and the policies. The President also said that the handling of the pandemic in Indonesia is not bad.
“If Indonesia is compared to a small country with a small population, of course such a comparison does not represent the real situation,” the President said.
When compared to countries with large populations, Indonesia is still better than the countries in the same category in terms of the spread and the death rate of COVID-19.
As of 2 October, the data shows that Indonesia is in the 23rd rank in the level of positive cases of COVID-19 out of all countries in the world. Above Indonesia, there are a number of countries with large populations with the higher number of cases. For example, the United States is in first place with 7,495,136 cases, followed by India with 6,397,896 cases, Brazil with 4,849,229 cases, and Russia with 1,194,643 cases.
“In terms of the economy, our achievements are not bad either. Our economy is in decline. That is the fact. There is no country that has not reported an economic contraction in the economy. In fact, there are many other countries that have to bear even worse economic burdens,” the President added.
Indonesia, as of the second quarter of 2020, recorded negative growth of 5.3 percent. It is better than neighboring countries in South East Asia, including Malaysia (-17.1 percent), the Philippines (-16.5 percent), Singapore (-13.2 percent) and Thailand (-12.12 percent). At the global level, there are also many countries experiencing greater negative growth, such as India (-23.9 percent) and the United States (-9.5 percent).
The president also called on all parties to maintain optimism that Indonesia can quickly go through the extraordinary challenge. (BPMI/UN)
Translated by: Ridwan Ibadurrohman
Reviewed by: Lulu Wuliarti
