Calling Indonesia A Developed Country If the Citizens Are Healthy, Minister Of Health: We Must Focus On Making Them Happy

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin. (Between-Puspa Perwitasari)

JAKARTA - Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that one of the requirements for Indonesia to become a developed country is having a healthy society.

"I dream of Indonesia becoming a high-income country that will be enjoyed by our children and grandchildren. So we have to ensure that the population in any region is healthy and intelligent," he said in a written statement, Tuesday, November 21, as reported by Antara.

The Minister of Health said that Indonesia must be able to take advantage of the 2030 demographic bonus by preparing superior, healthy, and intelligent Human Resources (HR).

He considers health to be a fundamental right that must be fulfilled first.

One effort to make this happen, he said, is through a number of programs on health transformation, especially on the primary service transformation pillar.

A healthy society, he said, is one of the assets in welcoming the demographic bonus that Indonesia will experience in 2030.

"So it is very clear that to create a healthy population, we have to keep them healthy. We have to focus on making them happy. We have to focus on public health services at community health centers rather than hospitals," he said.

The Minister of Health emphasized that health promotion efforts must be intensified rather than allowing people to fall sick and consume expensive medicines.

He considered this not easy. This is because health is correlated with many other sectors, such as food, agriculture, environment, education, and finance, which are sometimes difficult to balance.

Therefore, the Minister of Health stated that this health system transformation requires collaboration with many sectors and stakeholders.

"Therefore, I want to reiterate that the Ministry of Health wants to strengthen collaboration with partners to support health system transformation," he said.

It is known that Indonesia's demographic bonus is predicted to occur in 2030, when 68 percent of the approximately 200 million Indonesians will be in their productive period.

Research states that if a country fails to take advantage of the demographic bonus, it will be difficult for a country to transform into a high-income country and will be trapped forever in the middle-income trap.

"There are only seven years left. If we as policymakers in Indonesia fail to get a demographic bonus, then the opportunity for our children to become a developed nation will be lost," said the Minister of Health.