The Official PEN Book Was Launched In The US, Sri Mulyani: Important Lessons For The Republic Of Indonesia In Handling A Pandemic For Young Generation Heritage Candidates For Takers Of Policies

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Finance)

JAKARTA - The government through the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani Indrawati revealed that Indonesia's experience in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic needs to be immortalized because it will be one of the important lessons in the future.

This was conveyed by the Minister of Finance at the grand launching of the book "Keeping Indonesia Safe from The COVID-19 Pandemic" which was held in Washington DC, United States on Tuesday local time.

According to him, the government has collected and curated, preserving knowledge and experience so that it can be presented in the form of literacy.

This is a legacy for the next generation of young policymakers, academics, and Indonesian policymakers, as well as other countries. Because in my opinion, what we really experience and we do is very relevant to many countries," he said as reported by the official website on Wednesday, October 12.

The Minister of Finance added that the pandemic is an extraordinary situation because it creates extraordinary implications for life. He said the government had to think about the domino effect of the pandemic, which was originally a health problem, then spread into social, economic problems, and potentially had an impact on the financial side.

This is not just a surprise that requires us to think and design policies, such as in the 1997-1998 financial crisis or the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. Our focus as policymakers is to really understand what the crisis is and its consequences in terms of domino securities from corporations, the financial sector, to the economy," he said.

To deal with the pandemic, he continued, the government learned how to use fiscal policy by looking at guidebooks when dealing with the 1997-1998 financial crisis and the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

Some of them are actually still relevant when we are in a position designing for the preparedness of this pandemic. But many others are actually new to us," said the Minister of Finance.

The state treasurer also hopes that the documentation of experience in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in this book will serve as a guideline for the next generation.

"Because any shock that will and will continue to occur in the economy will really be faced, just like today when we are experiencing a lot of global food and energy crises," he added.

Furthermore, the Minister of Finance explained that the author of the book is not only a policymaker within the Ministry of Finance, but also involves other parties, such as academics. The book was prepared by looking at policies, data, and information based on evidence.

"Data-based policy and also evaluating, reviewing our policies, and also seeing what's right, what's wrong, and what has to and can be improved, whether the policy is really effective or not," he explained.

Otherwise, what kind of correction we can do. Is this a data issue, is this a design issue, is this a policy issue itself or an instrument. So, this is an excellent interactive and sustainable improvement by all of us," closed the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.