Jokowi Is Optimistic That 2021 Will Be A Year Of Recovery, Even Though He Cannot Be Sure When COVID-19 Will End

President Joko Widodo during a video conference (Photo: setkab.go.id)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo is optimistic that 2021 will be a year of recovery for Indonesia from the corona virus pandemic or COVID-19, so this must be well prepared by all staff.

"I am optimistic that 2021 is the year of recovery, recovery and rebound," Jokowi said when opening the 2020 National Development Planning Conference (Musrenbangnas) which was broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube account, Thursday, April 30.

He said, preparations for this recovery had to be carried out immediately, so that it was not only focused on handling the virus.

"I see countries that win, not only countries that are fast, not only countries that are quick to face COVID, but also countries that are quick to recover, fast to make recovery," he explained.

Jokowi said that this pandemic should be a step to improve the existing system in Indonesia. Among them, the health sector. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the health industry sector relied heavily on foreign countries because 95 percent of the raw materials needed had to be imported.

"The pharmaceutical industry, our medicinal raw materials are still imported. 95 percent are still imported. Medical equipment, are there or not? What are we buying? Everything is visible," he said.

"Then what about the medical personnel, the ratio of doctors, the ratio of specialist doctors, nurses, is it enough to face a situation like this," he added.

In addition, there are also obstacles in the hospital, such as the number of beds and laboratories. In fact, Indonesia not only has to face the dangers of the corona virus, but also tuberculosis or tuberculosis. Indonesia is the third country after India and China with the highest number of TB patients.

"We have to calculate everything because we see the importance of health security in the future. The COVID-19 pandemic has made us aware of the importance of health security," he said.

Another sector that must be addressed is food. Moreover, said Jokowi, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned of the danger of a food crisis and famine.

Therefore, Jokowi asked for a better strategy than before to deal with problems in the food sector.

"Food availability, food security is very important, what about the readiness of food production, post-harvest industrial readiness, supply chain efficiency, we have to look again and we must prepare a bigger strategy," he said.

He understands very well, all sectors have been working under stressful conditions. However, the cooperation between the central and regional governments must also work together strongly.

Even so, Jokowi has not been able to confirm that the COVID-19 pandemic will end in Indonesia. "It is not certain when this will end. Each expert has a different calculation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic," said Jokowi.

He said some developed countries that claim to have undergone a period of recovery are now experiencing the second wave of the spread of the virus.

Therefore, learning from this incident, Jokowi wants his staff to immediately create scenarios for dealing with COVID-19 with mild, moderate, and severe levels. These three scenarios will be mitigation measures for recovery after this non-natural disaster ends.

"We are preparing to mitigate health and economic impacts," he said.

In the midst of this pandemic, Jokowi made adjustments to development targets by carrying out massive reallocation and refocusing of the expenditure budget. "We shift priority to three things, the health sector, social safety nets for the poor, and economic stimulus so that business actors can survive and prevent layoffs," he explained.

Some time ago, Jokowi had expressed his optimism that the COVID-19 pandemic would end at the end of 2020. Meanwhile, Doni Monardo, Chair of the COVID-19 Task Force, said that the government has a target that Indonesians will return to normal life in July 2020. However, this will happen if all people follow health protocols in the midst of a pandemic.