Received An Award From India, Coordinating Minister Airlangga Talks About President Jokowi Calling PM Modi To Learn To Overcome The COVID-19 Spike

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto. (Photo: Doc. Coordinating Ministry for the Economy)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto received the Outstanding Contribution to National Economic Recovery award from Priyadarshni Academy, India at the 37th Anniversary Global Awards Function.

In his remarks, Airlangga was proud of the award he received. He also said that this appreciation is the hard work of all parties.

“I feel proud and happy to receive this award as a figure who plays a role in economic recovery. This award is not only for me, but for all the people of Indonesia, especially in the leadership of President Jokowi who is struggling to revive the economy in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic", he said through a virtual channel, Monday, September 20.

According to Airlangga, this awarding activity is an ideal forum to strengthen the diplomacy of the two countries which has been established quite well.

"This award is also a good form of building bilateral relations between the two countries," he said.

Airlangga added, Indonesia took various strategic steps in dealing with the pandemic situation. He said the government was trying to control the situation through economic protection measures and at the same time trying to control the spread of COVID-19.

"Some of the policies taken are intended to maintain public health, social, economic conditions, to accelerate vaccination," he said.

This encouraging thing was then reflected in the periodic reports on economic growth which showed that the recovery process was very clearly evident in the second trimester of this year.

"The result is that Indonesia can achieve economic growth of 7.07 percent in the second quarter of 2021. We also continue strategic public policies by taking into account the current situation," he said.

Airlangga admitted that the Indonesian government learned a lot from India in terms of handling the pandemic. He conveyed this explanation because he knew very well how President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) communicated incentives with Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi over the COVID-19 case.

“President Jokowi had quite intense communication with PM Modi earlier this year to learn how India handled the pandemic that had spiked due to the delta variant. Then we try to replicate India's handling measures by adjusting the situation in Indonesia," he said.

"Through the communication that has been established, we are grateful that today we can control the situation better after reaching 50.000 cases per day last July. However, we remain vigilant and continue to prepare the best steps to deal with new variant mutations that may occur," Airlangga concluded.