VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 25 - Indonesia's economic growth can surpass the global 2021 forecast of four to five percent if it were to unify and channel its energy to exclusively handle the health crisis, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) stated.

"The condition is simple. The nation should unite its energy, focus on handling the health crisis, and boost economic growth," Jokowi remarked here on Thursday during a virtual forum of the CNBC Indonesia Economy Outlook 2021.

International institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), have projected Indonesia to record economic growth in the range of four to five percent in 2021 after it shrank 2.07 percent in 2020 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jokowi believes that Indonesia's economic recovery would hinge largely on the disciplined application of health protocols, including wear face mask, maintaining physical distance, and washing hands, as well as the implementation of the 3T policy of testing, tracing, and treatment.

The two principles must be implemented optimally to thwart the spread of COVID-19. Concurrently, the government has conducted vaccination on an extensive scale to cover all people in a bid to build herd immunity.

The head of state affirmed that across Asia, Indonesia was among the leading countries to be conducting COVID-19 vaccination.

"We have to work hard to get the vaccine required by all countries in the world," he stated.

The government has outlined a target to cover public service workers in its second batch of vaccination after having offered the vaccine for health workers across the country in the first batch.

"I am optimistic that through the support of all parties for the vaccination, Indonesia would soon be free from COVID-19, and we would be able to demonstrate to the world that we are ahead in handling the crisis," Jokowi affirmed.

The government has allotted Rp372 trillion from the 2021 state budget to accelerate national economic recovery.

The budget will be utilized to fund various programs, including social assistance, Family Hope Program (PKH), wage subsidy, pre-employment card, labor-intensive program, productive aid for micro-, small- and medium-scale enterprises, relaxation of bank loan restructurization, tax facility, and other services to drive economic recovery.

"The swiftness in handling the health crisis will run in parallel with the national economic recovery," Jokowi stated.  (Antaranews)