VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Ministry of Tourism prepares fund worth Rp 100 billion every month for Bali's normalization process post-eruption of Mt. Agung some time ago. While Rp20 billion is oriented to Lombok for rehabilitation and trauma healing. Met after the program "Tourism-Friendly Journalism Movement" in Jakarta, Wednesday (October 24, 2018), Minister of Tourism, Arif Yahya said that Bali has entered the normalization stage; this could be seen from an international event that had been held recently in Bali.

“If Bali is normal; the easiest example of normalization of international events is that on12 to 14 of October, we already had an international event, IMF-World Bank Annual meeting. If the international event has taken place, that is the most visible sign of normalization. Lombok is now in the rehabilitation phase. Bali took time for 6 months. Lombok, I expect, is 3 months. Why it is 3 months, because Bali got 3 months, the industry was not strong enough to be normal back. Salaries had to be spent and so did all utilities; the water, and electricity still had to be used. Based on that experience, I asked for help from all related ministries, institutions, and industries to do rehabilitation,” said Arif Yahya.

Minister Arif Yahya further stated that the fund used was taken from the 2018 State Budget (APBN) and the 2019 State Budget draft. He also explained that he did not want to take risk to guarantee Rp30 billion for the Bali normalization process and the rehabilitation of Lombok. (VOI/NK/DP)