Good News! Pre-Employment Cards Reopened During Emergency PPKM, Targeting 2.8 Million People

JAKARTA - The government through the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) decided to reopen the Pre-Employment Card program in connection with the Implementation of Emergency Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) on July 3-20.

The Minister of Finance called this effort as a response to reduce the impact of the pandemic which is now increasingly widespread in the community.

"The government will reopen the Pre-Employment Card program with a target of 2.8 million new participants," he said virtually, Friday, July 2.

According to the Minister of Finance, the plan will absorb the 2021 State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) with an amount of no less than IDR 10 trillion.

"Later on, participants will receive a training benefit index of Rp. 1 million, training incentives of Rp. 600 thousand per month for 4 months, and survey incentives of Rp. 150 thousand," he said.

Furthermore, the former IMF and World Bank boss explained that the government and all levels of society need to work hard together so that the handling of COVID-19 can run effectively and the economic recovery can be accelerated.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance said that the Minister of Finance will continue to strive for flexibility and effectiveness of the APBN considering the uncertainty of the need for handling the pandemic is still very high while still paying attention to the accountability aspect.

For information, currently the Pre-Employment Card program has entered batch 18 with a remaining quota of around 5 million people.

Meanwhile, for the funding side, the Pre-Employment Card is included in the National Economic Recovery (PEN) fund scheme for the Social Protection sector with the latest budget reaching Rp149.08 trillion.