VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The budget of Rp699 trillion allotted for the National Economic Recovery (PEN) program this year should be realized soon and also be right on target, according to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

“This is since we need to accelerate and be right on target for our economy to revive,” President Jokowi remarked at the opening of the national coordination meeting of the 2021 government's internal supervision at the Bogor Presidential Palace, Bogor, West Java, on Thursday.

Jokowi acknowledged the slow budget realization for PEN. Until today, the PEN budget disbursed had only reached 24.6 percent of the total of the 2021 state budget ceiling.

“Budget absorption for PEN, the National Economic Recovery Program, remains slow at 24.6 percent. Once more, the acceleration and also the accuracy of the target (are urgently needed),” he emphasized.

The president underscored that 2021 was the year of national economic recovery to which end budget realization should be expedited without overlooking accuracy, effectiveness, and efficiency in budget utilization.

Moreover, Jokowi urged the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) and the Government Internal Supervisory Agency (APIP) to meet the economic growth target at seven percent by the second quarter of 2021 after having tanked to negative levels in the previous four quarters.

Hence, the BPKP and APIP are necessitated to assist in supervising the acceleration of governmental budget spending, either at the national or regional level.

“I urge the BPKP and all internal supervisors of the government to check carefully to look for factors causing deceleration in the realization of budget spending. What happened? Offer the solutions and ways out to solve this problem! The tasks are supervising the spending and then overseeing the ministries, institutions, and regional administrations in order to realize quick and accountable spending,” Jokowi expounded.

The president affirmed that economic recovery by the second quarter of 2021 had become more critical since it would determine the recovery momentum after being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For 2021, the government has targeted economic growth to reach four to five percent or to rebound from -2.07 percent by 2020.

“The year-on-year target of our economic recovery has been set at 4.5-5.5 percent. If in this second quarter, we cannot reach seven percent, we cannot meet the 2021 economic growth target either,” he noted. (Antaranews)