In Anticipation Of A Spike In Cases, Jokowi Asks All Economic Sectors Not To Be Opened Simultaneously

President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo. (Photo: Doc. Setkab)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said that acceleration is indeed the key to recovering the domestic economy. However, it must be accompanied by 'brake and gas' in normalizing community activities.

President Jokowi requested that all sectors not be opened simultaneously. Because it can trigger COVID-19 cases to increase.

"As I said earlier, if the COVID-19 market opens, it will increase. Be careful by sector first, don't all open it", he said when opening the National Conference V of the Association of Indonesian Regency Governments (Apkasi) at the State Palace, Jakarta, Friday, March 26.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta said that if he does not balance the brakes and gas in restoring the economy, he is worried that it will have an impact on an increase in COVID-19 cases such as what happened in India.

"Be careful, why I told you at the beginning, India has dropped down, up now, up and jumping. Europe's 3rd wave has dropped, jumped again 3-4 times", he explained.

Furthermore, Jokowi said that an important aspect of economic recovery is increasing labor-intensive programs. One of them is building village instructors.

"Building schools, building roads, building irrigation, is labor-intensive, because people need jobs and need income", he said.

Jokowi also asked local governments, especially district governments who participated in the national meeting, to continue to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to recover quickly, especially micro and small traders, such as market traders, hawkers, and street vendors.

"Because they are affected or if there is tourism in the area, this is the most affected by giving an injection there", he said.

Not only that, but Jokowi also asked local governments to prioritize the use of domestic products, rather than buying imported products. He said this was to help domestic industry recovery.

"Every existing program must be obliged to use local products. Never buy for government projects to buy foreign products, for what? Let there be demand, let there be consumption, if demand and consumption rise, production in factories, production in the industry as well increases. So that no one will lay off employees", he said.