Reducing Vaccine Dependence From Outside, Rachmat Gobel Asks For Investment In The Health Industry To Be Facilitated

Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Rachmat Gobel (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rachmat Gobel, asked government officials to take concrete actions to realize President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) speech at the state speech about independence and pride made in Indonesia, especially in the health sector by facilitating investment in the health industry.

"Encourage investors to invest in the health sector, make it easy," he said in a written statement in Jakarta, Tuesday, August 17, quoted from ANTARA.

Then, he said, if there is a domestic industry that produces drugs, vaccines, and medical devices, the government must prioritize domestic products.

"There must be partiality and special escorts, so that empty barrels don't make a loud noise. Sometimes this is a problem at the executive level who doesn't understand the President's vision," said the Deputy Speaker of the DPR, Coordinator for Industry and Development of the DPR RI.

Rachmat Gobel also conveyed four points that the government should pay attention to. First, Indonesia must be independent and independent in the health sector.

"From the case of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have really shown that we are very dependent on imports for the procurement of drugs, vaccines, and medical devices," said the Deputy Speaker of the DPR-RI from the Nasdem Party.

Therefore, he continued, it is time for the government to build an independent drug, vaccine, and medical device industry. "Give incentives, provide protection, and provide convenience to the domestic drug, vaccine and medical device industry," he emphasized.

Second, dependence on drugs, vaccines, and medical devices in addition to having an impact on high prices and consuming foreign exchange, also faces the risk of scarcity when Indonesia needs it.

It became one of the factors that many deaths. According to him, after the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is still dominated by health problems.

"Indonesia has repeatedly become a victim of diseases caused by this virus such as bird flu, swine flu, and so on. This not only undermines people's health but also erodes the quality of human resources, disrupts national resilience, and destabilizes the national economy," said Rachmat Gobel.

Third, the Proudly Made in Indonesia Program should not just be an empty slogan. The President has made regulations and made policies on TKDN (Domestic Component Level), he said, but all of this requires supervision in the field, especially in government spending, BUMN spending, and in government projects.

"There must be partiality and control so that domestic products are sovereign in their own country," said Rachmat Gobel, who is also the former Minister of Trade.

Fourth, strengthening the domestic industry, besides being able to change Indonesia from a consumer country to a producing country, from a merchant nation to a creator country.

"This will give pride, self-esteem, as well as absorb labor and improve the quality of Indonesian human resources. Building an industry is not only a matter of manpower but the ability to create a product," said the former Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce for Industry.