VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The signing of Prelimenary Agreement of Purchase and Supply of Bulk Production of COVID-19 Vaccine by Bio Farma President Director Honesti Basyir seated left) and General Manager of Sinovac Gao Xiang (seated right) as State-Owned Enterprises Minister concurrently Executive Chief of the Committee for COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Erick Thohir and Foreign Minister Retno L Marsudi looked on ini Hainan, China. on August 20, 2020 (ANTARA/HO-Kementerian BUMN)

Indonesia's Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto revealed on Friday that the government has disbursed funds to the tune of Rp3.3 trillion for this year for the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
"The total amount of funds that the government will prepare for this multi-year program will reach Rp37 trillion," he told journalists after attending the COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Committee's meeting in Jakarta. 
Hartarto also highlighted Indonesia's recovery and death rates, saying the country's recovery rate has reached 71.7 percent, which is higher than the global recovery rate, while its mortality rate has been recorded at 4.2 percent.
Indonesia has been taking steps to secure a COVID-19 vaccine. At present, clinical trials of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine are being conducted in Bandung, West Java province.
A state-owned pharmaceutical holding company, Bio Farma, recently collaborated with China’s Sinovac to produce the COVID-19 vaccine for Indonesia. The materials provided by Sinovac for the vaccine arrived in Indonesia on July 19, 2020.
To tackle the 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)