Cabinet Secretariat Holds Online FGD on Indonesia’s Exports, Imports amid Pandemic

Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Economic Affairs Satya Bhakti Parikesit delivers his remarks during an online Focus Group Discussion (FGD) under the theme “Performances, Problems, and Risk Mitigation of Indonesia’s Exports and Imports during COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on the National Economy.” Photo by: PR/Dinda

Cabinet Secretariat on Thursday (3/12) held an online Focus Group Discussion (FGD) under the theme “Performances, Problems, and Risk Mitigation of Indonesia’s Exports and Imports during COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on the National Economy.”

Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Economic Affairs Satya Bhakti Parikesit said in his remarks that in a bid to recover the economy amid the pandemic, the Government has rolled out incentives in various sectors, including in the trade sector. The incentives in the trade sector include fiscal incentives in the forms of tax relaxation as well as non-fiscal incentives.

“We have provided a lot of incentives for the trade sector so that the trade sector, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, can recover quickly and make a good contribution to our economic growth,” Bhakti said.

Bhakti also pointed out that there was an improvement in export performance from minus 11.7 percent in the second quarter to minus 10.8 percent in the third quarter.

“In the context of national economic recovery, the third quarter and fourth quarter will be our foundation for improvement next year,” he said.

Bhakti went on to say that in line with the directives of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, the improvement in export performance should be used as an opportunity amid the pandemic to strengthen Indonesia’s role in the global supply chain.

“We must be able to make use of the opportunities to fundamentally improve our economic structures so that we can compete and seize markets from other countries,” he said.

Bhakti also expressed hope that the FGD will discuss the overall performance of Indonesia’s trade as well as the existing obstacles and problems.

“We hope that we can also obtain critical views and analyses on the effectiveness of the Government’s incentives policies in the trade sector,” the Deputy said.

For the record, the FGD is part of a series of FGDs on structural reforms initiated by the Office of Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Economic Affairs. The organizer of the FGD is Assistant Deputy for Trade, Industry and Manpower of Cabinet Secretariat. (DND/UN) (RI/MUR)