Sri Mulyani Calls the COVID-19 Outbreak Not the Last: Nations Prepare for Handling in the Future

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu), Sri Mulyani, said that the condition of the COVID-19 pandemic brought a very valuable lesson for all countries in the world to be able to manage risks that cannot be fully controlled and are cross-border.

This was revealed by the Minister of Finance in a webinar after he finished holding the annual meeting of the World Bank and IMF in Washington DC, the United States last week.

"The nations must think and work on how to prevent something like this from happening again", she said, Tuesday, October 19.

According to the Minister of Finance, all countries have now agreed to cooperate in strengthening efforts to reduce risks that might arise in the future if the epidemic is repeated", she said.

“This pandemic will not end or will not be the first or the last time. Therefore, in the world environment, ways to handle and prepare if it ever happens again. So that the impact can be prevented as early as possible so that it does not cause extraordinary effects, both in terms of casualties, economy, and financial consequences", she said.

As previously reported, the World Bank reports that it has provided funding of 160 billion US dollars for 100 countries in the world. The disbursement is used for handling the health crisis, procurement, and vaccine programs, as well as socio-economic assistance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the government is said to have allocated a budget for dealing with the Coronavirus for the period of 2021 in the amount of IDR 744.75 trillion. This number has increased from the previous ceiling of IDR 699 trillion in anticipation of the development of the delta variant.