President Jokowi Urges Budget Disbursement for Pandemic Mitigation

President Jokowi gives directives during an inspection to the COVID-19 Handling Command Post, at the Gradhika Bhakti Praja Building, Central Java Province, Tuesday (30/6). (Photo by: Public Relations / Jay)

During an inspection to the COVID-19 Handling Command Post, at the Gradhika Bhakti Praja Building, Central Java Province, Tuesday (30/6), President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo delivered his directives to Governors, Regents, and Mayors to disburse budget allocated for health services, social aids, and economic stimulus in order to maintain money circulation in the community.

President Jokowi further said that  it is important to immediately disburse the budget for social aids so that social safety net program can be conducted to help those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regarding economic stimulus package for small and medium enterprises, the President ordered regional governments to monitor the implementation as well as to prepare the budget.

“The regional budget (APBD) should be reallocated for spending that focuses on those three aspects to increase money circulation in the community,” the President stated.

Furthermore, the President has also instructed all ministries and institutions to accelerate their spending and he will also monitor it every day.

“I know the spending made by ministries and institutions. If their spending on health services, social aids, and economic stimulus is still low, I will call the ministers or heads by myself,” the President emphasized He also urged his ministers to not let the amount of money in circulation grows more slowly.

On that occasion, the President pointed out that so far locally-based intervention strategy is effective to deal with COVID-19.

“Isolating neighborhood units, community units, and villages is way more effective than city-level or provincial scale quarantine. We should use the strategy to decrease the R0 (basic reproductive number for COVID-19) and Rt (virus’s actual transmission rate at a given time),” he said.

At the end of his remarks, the President expressed his gratitude for the hard work of all ranks in Central Java administration.

“We hope that COVID-19 cases in Central Java Province decline significantly and InsyaAllah (God Willing) the economy can also return to normal,” the President concluded.

Also accompanying the President during the event were, among others, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir, and Head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Doni Monardo. (HIM / EN)

Translated by: Syarifah Aisyah
Reviewed by: Mia Medyana