VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo appointed Budi Gunadi Sadikin as Minister of Health and Dante Saksono Harbuwono as his deputy (Wamenkes) in the Advanced Indonesian Cabinet for 2019-2024 at the State Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Sadikin, who replaced Terawan Agus Putranto, has said his first task as Health Minister will be to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control. In a short speech after being nominated to the post (December 22, 2020), he had said that measures to bring the pandemic under control need to be inclusive so that all citizens can resume their normal lives.

"It is impossible for the Ministry of Health to do it exclusively, we have to do it inclusively. And we believe that the government is not enough to make its own program, but it must be a movement carried out with the Indonesian people," the Minister of Health stated in a press release, issued by the Communication and Community Service Bureau of the Ministry of Health on Wednesday.

Born in Bogor, May 6, 1964, Sadikin played a role in the early days of the pandemic in opening up international networks and mobilizing domestic resources to procure 20 PCR test kits with a capacity of more than 10 thousand tests per day, or 28 percent of the national capacity. He also worked on the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines and the establishment of a system for implementing and distributing vaccines, as well as the procurement of COVID-19 therapeutic drugs.

In addition, Sadikin, or BGS, has been actively monitoring and managing 70 state-owned (BUMN) hospitals in their COVID-19 handling efforts, one of which has been increasing the bed capacity at BUMN Hospital to more than 6,500.

BGS has earlier served as president director of Bank Mandiri, president director of PT Asahan Aluminum, and deputy minister of state-owned enterprises (BUMN).

President Widodo has appointed diabetes expert Dante Saksono Harbuwono as Deputy Minister of Health (Wamenkes).

His inauguration as the Deputy Minister is based on Presidential Decree (Kepres) Number 76 / M / 2020 concerning the Dismissal and Appointment of Deputy State Ministers of the Advanced Indonesian Cabinet for the 2019-2024 Period.

In the reading of the oath, led by President Widodo, all the newly inaugurated ministers and deputy ministers promised to do their best with a full sense of responsibility towards the nation and state.

"By Allah, I swear that I will be loyal to the 1945 Constitution and will carry out all laws and regulations in the best possible way for the sake of my devotion to the nation and state," they pledged. (antaranews)