VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

All 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) have responded to the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic by offering fiscal support to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

As stated by Antara News Agency on Wednesday (08/4)  within the APEC region, 16 economies have made announcements specifying the form of support to be extended to SMEs.
The support to SMEs entail lending or financing facilities catering exclusively to SMEs, providing low-interest loans as well as introducing loan guarantees and loan payment moratoriums, implementing moratoriums on rental and utilities payments, providing temporary wage subsidies, usually covering up to three months of wages, as well as implementing tax deferrals and tax refunds//Ant

France said Wednesday it would extend a lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus as the death toll soared across Europe and the US -- and experts warned the looming global recession could be the worst in decades.

As quoted by AFP.com (08/4) governments are grappling with how to balance public safety against the devastating economic impact of stay-at-home orders that have erased millions of jobs in a matter of weeks. More than 80,000 people worldwide have died in the virus crisis, which has sent the global economy spiralling and forced billions of people to remain at home as much as possible.
As the economic downturn starts to bite, health experts stressed that any premature loosening of restrictions could accelerate the spread of a contagion that has already infiltrated nearly every country.More than 80,000 people worldwide have died in the virus crisis, which has sent the global economy spiralling and forced billions of people to remain at home as much as possible//AFP

Global trade could plummet by a third this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the World Trade Organization said Wednesday, warning the deepest recession "of our lifetimes" could be on the horizon.

As quoted by AFP.com (08/4) WTO chief Roberto Azevedo told reporters in a virtual briefing from Geneva that  COVID-19 has completely upended the global economy and with it international trade. He said the global trade body was projecting that "trade in 2020 will fall steeply in every region of the world, and basically across all sectors of the economy.
The WTO acknowledged that there was huge uncertainty around how the economic crisis around the pandemic, which has infected more than 1.4 million people globally and killed nearly 83,000, would unfold. Stressing that the situation was first and foremost a health crisis, Azevedo warned that "the unavoidable declines in trade and output will have painful consequences for households and businesses, on top of the human suffering caused by the disease itself//AFP

The Indonesian government will intensify manpower-intensive infrastructure projects in different parts of Indonesia to offer employment to members of the low-income community to maintain their purchasing power amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,  Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimoeljono said in a statement received by  ANTARA  on Wednesday.

In addition,  manpower-intensive infrastructure projects are also aimed at boosting economic growth and distributing funds to villages and rural areas. Furthermore he  explained in implementing these labor-intensive infrastructure projects to maintain the purchasing power of people from the low-income group and to reduce unemployment, the social distancing measures will consistently be imposed to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.
To this end, the Public Works and Housing Ministry will expedite the realization of this year's labor-intensive projects, financed in cash, in 34 provinces across Indonesia. With a total budget of Rp10 trillion, the projects cover seven programs, including the Irrigation System Accelerated Program (P3-TGAI), Socio-Economic Regional Infrastructure Development Program (PISEW), and Reduced, Reused, and Recycled Waste Management Sites (TPS3R)//Ant