Curcol Luhut With The World Bank, If Indonesia Can Recover After The Pandemic

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan shared his conversation with the World Bank (World Bank / WB). Where is he, assured that Indonesia's economy will soon recover after being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Last night I spoke with the World Bank via telephone. They actually saw that Indonesia, with a large consumption, is much easier to recover than countries that rely solely on high technology," Luhut said as quoted by Antara, Sunday, August 30.

Luhut said that in the High Impact Seminar and Kick Off Program of BI in GerNas Proud to be Made in Indonesia with the theme "Realizing MSMEs as New Strengths for the National Economy: Synergy of the Transformation Program for MSMEs to Enter Digital Ecosystems" virtually.

Luhut believes that Indonesia can recover more quickly if all stakeholders work together, one of which is to continue to encourage domestic consumption. Indonesia's growth itself contracted 5.32 percent in the second quarter of 2020.

The economic slowdown was reflected in the expenditure side where domestic consumption contracted by 5.5 percent, the worst in 20 years. Given that 58 percent of Indonesia's GDP depends on consumption, industries in the food and beverage, fashion, transportation, communication and accommodation sectors are expected to play an important role in increasing consumption of doemsticks.

"We have that combination. Therefore, let us use it," said Luhut.

Luhut emphasized that the keys to driving economic growth recovery in the third quarter of 2020 are solidarity, cooperation, a spirit of innovation, and maintaining optimism. He also added that the public does not need to be overly afraid if in the third quarter the realization of economic growth is negative again.

"We are fighting as hard as we can so that later in the third quarter it will be close to zero or minus zero point. But even if that happens, it will not be the end of everything.

According to him, the World Bank appreciates the programs that have been carried out by the Indonesian government to control the economic situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though there are still many shortcomings, Luhut believed that Indonesia's biggest fear has been passed.

"As long as we are still working like this, what we are doing is right, the steps are right, the discipline is right, there is no need for excessive fear and optimism, we must all maintain," said Luhut.