VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Member of House Commission VI Nevi Zuairina said she supports the government to focus more on solving the Covid-19 pandemic by directing all resources owned by the state to control the outbreak, with the same focus of populist economy that has been attached to business actors in various sectors.

"The fundamental problem is that the absorption of the budget that has been set for Covid-19 is very minimal, far from the expectations, which range from only around 19 percent or Rp135 trillion from the Rp695.2 trillion budget at the end of July 2020. If this condition continues, the pandemic impact will never go away," Nevi said on Monday.

The politician said that Indonesia is facing a world economic crisis because of Covid-19. Nevi suspects that the persistence of the people's spending situation will be helped during Regional Election, where people who own resources and cash spend their funds, which indirectly increases the circulation of money in the market.

She said this is just a hypothesis that needs deeper research, so the government has various scenarios for rapid action based on data and analysis.

She said the right policy will withstand the recession by strengthening the foundations of a populist economy with a focus on managing health.

Nevi believes that assistance to the people through the National Economic Program (PEN) provided by the government can strengthen the people's economy with various considerations.

"I still hope that the Government will focus on health management and on solving the pandemic, which is at the same time saving the economy of the poor," she said.

"The state of the pandemic in our country has not changed. Maybe we need to evaluate where did we go wrong. We also need to evaluate the management of the state budget for handling Covid-19," she concluded. (RRI)