VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Nearly 382 work packages with a budget ceiling of Rp11.1 trillion were still running in Jakarta during the COVID-19 pandemic until August 18, 2021, the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) has noted. "All packages are running because there is a mandate from the Minister of Home Affairs' Instruction that construction activities are critical and can operate 100 percent," Director of Construction Services Development of the PUPR Ministry Putut Marhayudi said in a discussion about construction during the pandemic here on Monday.

The value of the budget ceiling of the work package in Jakarta was around 8.5 percent of the total budget ceiling throughout Indonesia which reached Rp130.22 trillion with 5,362 work packages, he explained.

The categories of work packages include construction work, consulting services and other services and goods.

"The number of packages is quite large in conditions such as these. We must pay attention together because we are still in a pandemic situation. There are still public activity restrictions that affect the implementation of work in the field," he said.

In addition, the handling of the COVID-19 emergency hospital was also conducted through five hospitals in Jakarta out of a total of 33 in several cities in Indonesia.

The 33 hospitals added a capacity of 2,811 hospital beds and 5,989 beds in isolation rooms.

Putut Marhayudi hoped that the spending would boost the community's economic growth to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is one of the priority efforts to accelerate economic recovery and social reform.

"We must ensure that state spending related to infrastructure development can contribute to positive growth for the community's economy," he said. (Antaranews)