Gov’t Committed to Improving People’s Welfare Amid Pandemic: President Jokowi
President Jokowi and Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung attend the 49th Anniversary of the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) through video conference on Monday (01/10). Photo by: PR of Cabinet Secretariat/Agung.
The Government is committed to continuously improving people’s welfare despite the challenges amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
“The pandemic must not stop our efforts to improve the people’s welfare,” the President said in his remarks at the 49th Anniversary of the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) on Monday (01/10).
On that occasion, the President reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to continue to improve Indonesia’s human development index.
“After we take several measures to improve our health and education sector, thank God, our human capital index has increased from 0.52 in 2017 to 0.54 in 2020, and we will continue to improve this,” the President said.
The President also stated that the Government continues to improve measures to overcome stunting.
“The problem of stunting is a great challenge for our human resources, and we continue to take measures to overcome the problem. Thank God, the stunting rate in 2021 dropped to 24.4 percent from 37.2 percent in seven years ago,” the President said.
The Government, he added, also continues to guarantee access to education, especially for low-income people. The Government will also continue to provide assistance for students of primary education to students of higher education.
“In 2021, (we distributed) Smart Indonesia Card (KIP) with a budget of Rp 11 trillion for 21 million students across the country, and KIP for higher education students with a budget of Rp. 9.4 trillion for 1.1 million recipients across the country,” the President stated, adding that the Government also implements “independents campus” and “freedom to learn” programs to produce excellent human resources through certified internships programs at reputable companies.
“Last year there were 50,000 participants [joining the program] and this year we are targeting 150,000 participants, 40 percent of which are digital talents that we need to support,” he said.
In addition to producing professional and competitive young people in the job market, the President added, character education is also an important aspect that the Government pays attention to. The President said that all stakeholders must join hands to support Pancasila education which has been continuously carried out by the Agency for the Implementation of State Ideology of Pancasila (BPIP).
“We must promote the value of tolerance among all communities in our nation and increase our national unity and integrity, as well as improve our mutual cooperation. Our success in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic depends on one important factor, namely our mutual cooperation,” the President stated.
Amid globalization and information abundance, he added, the Indonesian people should be grateful because the national character has always remained strong.
“We continue to strengthen the noble values from Bung Karno and other founding fathers of the nation. We must continue to maintain the noble values of Pancasila as the guidelines for our future generations,” the President said.
The President also stated that Indonesia should be grateful because currently the COVID-19 case in the country is under control.
“Thank God, we have succeeded in managing this very complex health challenge. If we look at the month of July [last year], we had a very discouraging period with 56,000 daily cases,” he said.
The President further said that the Government’s ongoing efforts to accelerate vaccination drive have made Indonesia one of the top five countries with the highest number of the administered vaccine doses in the world.
“The first dose vaccination rate has reached 81 percent and the second vaccination rate has reached 56 percent. As many as 29 provinces out of a total of 34 provinces have injected the first dose reaching the target above 70 percent. We have to be grateful for this. Nevertheless, even though we managed to control the pandemic, we must stay vigilant and be ready for possible pandemic risks due to the Omicron variant,” the President remarked. (FID/UN) (RI/LW)
