VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia's economy could recover at the latest by mid-2021 owing to the discovery of the COVID-19 vaccine in early next year, Institute for Development of Economics and Finance's (Indef's) senior economist, Iman Sugema, stated.

"The economic recovery really relies on how immediate the discovery of the COVID-19 vaccine is. If it can be reached on time, Indonesia's economy will rebound in mid-2021," Sugema explained.

Speaking at a discussion organized by Indef in Jakarta on Tuesday (Aug 25), the economist remarked that the discovery of the novel coronavirus vaccine was, therefore, the key to responding to the major impacts of this pandemic.

Availability of the COVID-19 vaccine would offer certainty to businesspersons and the industrial sector to revive production as the demands of consumers also start growing, he noted.

"If the handling of this COVID-19 pandemic gets protracted, more companies will encounter difficulties, and the economic recovery process will also become more challenging," he noted.

However, if the COVID-19 pandemic were to be handled properly, Sugema projects Indonesia's economic growth to likely exceed 5.02 percent recorded in 2019.

Indef had earlier forecast that Indonesia's economic performance in 2021 would really depend on the improvements that it did in 2020.

At the end of 2020, Indef projected Indonesia's economic growth rate to be recorded at between minus 0.53 percent and minus 0.14 percent if the absorption of expenditure from fiscal stimulus were to reach at least 60 percent.

Hence, Indef expressed the belief that Indonesia's economic growth in 2021 could be recorded between 2.54 percent and 3.77 percent or lower than that of the government's forecast at 4.5-5.5 percent.

On Wednesday, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto revealed that Indonesia aims to obtain 30 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by PT Bio Farma by the end of 2020.

"We are optimistic that by the end of this year, we will have access to 30 million doses of the vaccine produced at Bio Farma. This is the foremost initiative," he stated at an online discussion.

Novel coronavirus infections initially surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019.

Since then, COVID-19 has spread to over 215 countries and territories, including 34 provinces of Indonesia, with a massive spurt in the death toll.

To tackle this COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesia is leaving no stone unturned to develop a vaccine to fight the virus.

Currently, in addition to the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, Indonesian scientists are working on a vaccine named after the country's national flag, Merah Putih (Red and White). (ANTARA)