Devastated By The Pandemic, The UMKM Association Asked Jokowi And The Regional Government To Stop Implementing The PSBB

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Indonesian MSME Association (Akumindo) Muhammad Ikhsan Ingratubun has asked that the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) policy be no longer implemented by the central and regional governments.

The reason, said Ikhsan, was because the policy was considered to be detrimental to the MSME business. As is known, the MSME sector has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, in which many MSME business actors have gone bankrupt.

"What the association and UMKM players want is that PSBB policy should not be implemented anymore. Because PSBB is very detrimental to MSME businesses," he said, in a webinar with the theme 'Encouraging Local Economic Growth', Tuesday, December 15.

Ikhsan said, one of the bad effects of the social restriction policy was the reduction in business turnover for MSMEs. The decline in turnover was experienced by business actors in the Denpasar Bali area.

"For example, silver craftsmen in Bali whose turnover was extraordinary before the pandemic (COVID-19), but during the pandemic, their turnover was not able to sell anymore because of business restrictions," he said.

Furthermore, Ikhsan assessed that the PSBB was also not effective in breaking the chain of transmission of the COVID-19 virus in the country. According to him, this is reflected in the still increasing number of COVID-19 cases, even though the PSBB has been implemented in a number of regions.

For your information, currently active cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia have reached more than half a million or 629,429. Meanwhile, new cases per day have increased by 6,120. While the suspects reached 63,666.

According to Ikhsan, instead of imposing large-scale social restrictions, it would be better if the central and local governments tightened health protocols in all social and economic activities of the community.

He said, it is hoped that this will accelerate the process of national economic recovery as well as a solution to fighting the deadly virus from China.

"This is like a WHO reference that indeed the lockdown or PSBB is no longer implemented. Because it hinders economic recovery efforts and is not effective in stopping the COVID-19 pandemic," he explained.