Uraa! These Are The Three Great Enemies Of All Countries During The War Against The Pandemic

Illustrations (Photo: Doc. VOI)

JAKARTA – It is undeniable that the pandemic situation has had a significant impact on various human lives. This was also agreed by the Minister of Finance (Menkeu), Sri Mulyani.

According to the Minister of Finance, the current conditions make all countries inevitably have to declare war on the pandemic. He also identified at least three main enemies that must be faced.

"In a pandemic all countries face the same three major challenges," he said, via online channels while speaking at the 46th anniversary of UNS, Friday, March 11.

In the explanation of the Minister of Finance, the first challenge is health problems due to COVID-19 which threatens public safety. Second, the social challenge is how to protect people who suddenly lose their jobs.

"And the third is the economic and financial challenges, which means how to recover the economy that has the potential to disrupt the stability of the financial sector," he said.

Furthermore, the state treasurer revealed that the government immediately responded to the three 'enemies' through a number of strategic steps. One of the most important policies is the issue of Perppu Number 1 of 2020 which was later ratified into Law Number 2 of 2020.

Through this regulation, the government issued a regulation which essentially provides the flexibility of the state budget to increase the budget deficit in order to meet the funding needs in tackling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Multidimensional crises require a fast and extraordinary response. The very main instrument in this pandemic war and multidimensional challenge is state finances or the state budget," he said.

In application in the field, the state is here to focus attention on public health. The government bears all costs of treating COVID-19 patients along with the drug budget.

Not only that, health workers who are directly involved in treating patients are given special incentives as compensation for their willingness to be at the forefront of the battle against the pandemic.

Then, in the social sector, various types of assistance were given to the community, both in the form of cash and basic necessities. Then, people who lost their jobs were offered a competency improvement program and also provided cash through the Pre-Employment Card scheme.

Furthermore, in an effort to restore the economy and maintain macro stability, the government has initiated a policy of restructuring credit and financing, providing interest subsidies, injection of liquidity to banks, and also providing fiscal incentives and other taxes.

A total of hundreds of trillions have been disbursed by the state in the last two years to fight the impact of the pandemic through the National Economic Recovery (PEN) program.

"The state budget is here and works very hard to protect people from the threat of a pandemic, protect people from declining welfare due to job losses, and restore the business world, especially small and medium enterprises. This is all done to maintain the economic stability of our financial system," closed the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.