VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Coordinating Minister for Economy, Airlangga Hartarto said that the government's effort through the National Economic Recovery Program in 2021 has been on the track as intended and will be continued in 2022. Minister Airlangga in an official statement in Jakarta on Tuesday (14/12) said that the government countercyclical budget policy, especially through the National Economic Recovery Program had protected the vulnerable people and stimulated the business sector to grow positively. Indonesia is one of few countries whose output has returned to the pre-pandemic level.

The National Economic Recovery realization until December 10, 2021 had reached 69.8 percent. It includes health with 66.7 percent, social security 81.5 percent, priority programs 70.9 percent, business incentive 100 percent, and micro small medium enterprises (MSMEs) and corporation 47.9 percent. Meanwhile, the new program is job loss insurance - derivative of the Job Creation Law.

Allocation changes for the National Economic Recovery Programs included extreme poverty handling, labor intensive programs, and job loss insurance. Minister Airlangga Hartarto also remarked that some parts of the tourism and retail sectors were  very much helped by wage subsidies. The government created some safety nets in case any sector faces difficulties in their operations and administration.

Furthermore, Minister Airlangga Hartarto said that the government's program in 2021 focused on extreme poverty handling in 35 regencies/cities in 7 provinces with two programs namely groceries card for 3 months and village aid for 3 months. In line with that, there will be a National Socio-Economic Survey in 2022 to handle 212 regencies/cities. Minister Airlangga added that the government targets to reduce extreme poverty rate in 2022 to 3-3.5 percent and poverty between 9.2-9.17 percent.

By 2022, the government will have allocated the budget of Covid-19 Handling Program and National Economic Recovery Program worth Rp414 trillion to handle the Covid-19 pandemic in the health sector and people security. According to Minister Airlangga, the health sector budget is worth Rp117.9 trillion, people security Rp154.8 trillion, and economic recovery strengthening Rp141.4 trillion.

The 2022 State Budget will be focused on national economic recovery and structural reformation. Also, the 2022 State Budget will focus on handling the pandemic so that the State Budget becomes an instrument to maintain Indonesian economic recovery and support the continuity of the Covid-19 pandemic handling programs.