Sri Mulyani: The COVID-19 Pandemic Is A Momentum For Mutual Cooperation

Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati. (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that the COVID-19 pandemic could become a momentum for mutual cooperation so that the Indonesian nation would have better resilience in facing various challenges ahead.

"The pandemic must be the glue of mutual cooperation, become an accelerator of reform and make us focus on human capital fundamentals such as health and education," said Sri Mulyani during a virtual public lecture at FEB UI, quoted from Antara, Thursday, November 19.

Sri Mulyani said this pandemic could also provide opportunities to improve health and social assistance programs and encourage production innovations that were in line with the process of making business easier.

According to him, Indonesia must take advantage of this momentum, considering that not many countries in the world are able to overcome the crisis due to the incompatibility of stakeholders in finding solutions.

"Many countries are in crisis, but they are sinking, because they continuously blame each other, weaken and mutually sabotage each other, so that policy formulation does not occur and they are unable to get out of the crisis," he said.

Currently, he added, Indonesia has been working to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic by making the state budget as the main instrument to support recovery and maintain future reforms.

However, he ensured, Indonesia would also continue to carry out infrastructure development, improve the quality of human resources, encourage the use of technology and plan for a more optimal area.

"We must be able to overcome the crisis. If we can overcome it and focus on cooperation and mutual support, then Indonesia can come out as a winner and be better," said Sri Mulyani.

Previously, the government had allocated funds for handling COVID-19 and national economic recovery amounting to Rp.695.2 trillion, with realization of absorption having reached 55.5 percent by the second week of November 2020.

This distribution of funds has had an impact on the economy so that the growth in the third quarter of 2020 was recorded at minus 3.49 percent or better than in the second quarter of 2020 which contracted by 5.32 percent.

The government hopes that economic growth will improve because providing an effective fiscal stimulus to boost consumption can be a turning point towards a stronger recovery.