VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia is a country prone to disasters that can cause casualties as well as material losses of a number of infrastructure and buildings. In a dialogue forum on 'Disaster Risk and Insurance Funding' themed "National Strategy to Build Fiscal Improvement" ahead of the opening of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group 2018 -IMF-WBG in Nusa Dua, Bali, Wednesday (10/10), Vice President, Jusuf Kalla said that Indonesia needs to have insurance and funding management to deal with various disasters that often occur in Indonesia. Before a number of state delegations participating in the IMF-WBG meeting, Jusuf Kalla said that some disasters in Indonesia from Aceh tsunami,  Lombok earthquake to tsunami in Palu and Donggala have caused considerable material losses that require the reconstruction and rehabilitation budget taken from the state revenue. Taking for example, the funding of post-tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation in Aceh which was assisted by IMF and the United Nations. Therefore, Vice President Jusuf Kalla hopes that in the future, Indonesia needs to have insurance and funding management so as it will not depend on the foreign assistance.

“So far, Indonesia’s assets have been made without a fiscal risk protection due to the disaster. If the bridge is damaged, it is damaged. This is replaced again after the disaster. If the government building is damaged, it will be replaced. Everything becomes the burden of the state budget. Of course, we don't want everything to be borne by the state budget. We do not want to continuously depend on the foreign aids. How the state assets can be insured; so far there has not been rule yet about how government assets are insured," Jusuf Kalla said.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla calls for the countries participating in the IMF-WBG 2018 annual meeting to form insurance and funding management in a bid to address disasters and to ease the burden on countries affected by natural disasters. He perceived that road infrastructure and government or individual buildings are assets that need to be insured from natural disasters that cannot be predicted when and where they will occur. (VOI/RIZKI/AHM)