Jokowi Asks For Social Assistance And Work Intensive Program For Communities Affected By COVID-19

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) ordered the mayors to continue the program of providing social assistance (bansos), especially basic foodstuffs for people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He conveyed this in front of the mayors and deputy mayors who were present at the opening ceremony of National Conference IV of the Association of Indonesian City Governments (APEKSI) at the State Palace, Jakarta.

"Keep continuing to provide social assistance, especially basic foodstuffs to the lower class and lower class groups of people who cannot get additional income," Jokowi said as broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube account, Thursday, February 11.

Not only the social assistance program, Jokowi also reminded the sustainability of labor-intensive programs. He said, this program should be multiplied to help the community, especially those who are affected.

The hope is that this program can strengthen people's purchasing power and increase public consumption.

"There are so many repairs to village roads, doing it labor-intensive, repairing water channels in cleaning waterways in the city is doing labor intensive, repairing puskesmas, repairing posyandu is done with labor intensive, school repairs are done with labor-intensive," he said.

"I think there are so many jobs created and we pay their salaries, they will increase consumption, thus increasing purchasing power so that there is demand in our economy," Jokowi added.

Jokowi believes that this labor-intensive program can provide income for the community because it is based on the experience of the central government. According to him, the central government has implemented a large-scale labor-intensive program in all existing ministries.

This aims to help people who have lost their jobs to earn income.

"The central government is also doing the same thing, carrying out a massive Labor Intensive Program in all existing Ministries, we shift everything there to labor intensive. All must work together with all citizens who are out of work to get their governing income there. "he concluded.