Sambangi Harvard Kennedy School AS, Sri Mulyani Shares The Experience Of The Government Of The Republic Of Indonesia Handling COVID-19

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Finance)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani in the middle of this week made a working visit to the United States related to a number of official state agendas.

During the visit, the Minister of Finance took the time to discuss with academia Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, Massachusetts along with the introduction of the book Keeping Indonesia Safe from The Covid-19 Pandemic.

The state treasurer explained that the whole world does not have a reference on how to deal with the pandemic because it has never happened before. It was revealed that the world also does not know how to design a fiscal response that is right for the situation.

I think it's good when facing an extraordinary situation like this, the policies formulated to answer extraordinary challenges of this kind need to be captured and documented, then distributed to the public. Because this pandemic is not the first and the last for Indonesia in particular, he said in a written statement, Sunday, October 9.

The Minister of Finance added that this book contains how Indonesia created various extraordinary policies in facing extraordinary challenges so that people and the economy could be saved from COVID-19.

We discussed how the impact of the policy was taken. We involve independent analysts and many researchers who are very credible, and also conclude with discussions. What can really be done better? And how will this provide lessons?" he said.

Furthermore, the Minister of Finance explained in general how the pandemic had an impact on the health sector and then continued to have an impact on the economic sector.

"The Indonesian government immediately responded and mapped the economic consequences of this health shock," he said.

Under these conditions, he continued, the state budget must protect the public so that it is not affected by the pandemic too deeply. It was revealed that the state budget provided support through various pandemic handling programs and national economic recovery, both for the poor and vulnerable, MSMEs, to corporations.

I hope this book can be a lesson and guideline for us in facing the pandemic in the future. So, Indonesia at least has a book that summarizes all the experiences we have so far which have been very unique, but also extraordinary," closed the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.