At The White House, President Jokowi: The Price We Have To Pay Is Very High

Screenshot of President Joko Widodo at the US White House

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo gave a speech at the Asean-United States Special Summit at the White House, Washington DC, United States (US) on Thursday, May 12 evening, local time.

In front of the US President, Joe Biden, Jokowi said that the COVID-19 pandemic had taught the whole world a valuable lesson. From the pandemic, Jokowi realized that health resilience and world preparedness for pandemics were not strong enough.

"As a result, the price we have to pay is very high. Millions of people have lost their lives and the world economy has experienced a slump," Jokowi said as shown on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube, quoted Friday, May 13.

Therefore, Jokowi said that countries must work together to overcome the pandemic and build a stronger world health and preparedness architecture.

Meanwhile, to build a stronger world health and preparedness architecture, Jokowi said that inclusive health access is needed. All people without exception must have access to basic health services.

Then, Jokowi sees the need for access to adequate financing and requires funding donors from other countries.

"Not all countries have the resources to improve their health infrastructure. We need a new health financing mechanism that involves donor countries and multilateral financing banks. The health financing relationship must be seen as an investment and a shared responsibility to prevent a pandemic," explained Jokowi. . Jokowi stressed that collective capacity must be pursued and cooperation between countries is the key. It is necessary to strengthen research cooperation, technology transfer cooperation, and access to raw materials

"There should be no monopoly on the supply chain of the health industry, diversification of production centers for drugs, vaccines, diagnostic and therapeutic tools must be carried out. With its capacity, Indonesia is ready to become a vaccine production and distribution hub in the region," he said.

Furthermore, Jokowi also reminded the importance of accelerating vaccination. Acceleration of vaccination must be carried out to reach 70 percent of the population of each country to overcome the pandemic.

"Baksin must immediately become a vaccination. Our collaboration must bridge the challenges of vaccination starting from financing, logistics, and human resources," he said.