Jakarta, The Indonesia Post – Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati stated that Indonesia had succeeded in achieving three achievements at the global level during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, from handling to recovery.
“We have learned a lot from the pandemic. If we look at the results, Indonesia is a country that is considered reactive and very good at handling COVID-19,” she said at the National Working Meeting on Accounting and Government Financial Reports in Jakarta, Thursday.
Sri Mulyani said that Indonesia has succeeded in becoming a country that is considered very responsive and good in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be seen from a number of indicators.
These indicators include the number of controlled positive cases, the realization of vaccination that continues to be accelerated as well as massive steps in handling and treating COVID-19 patients.
According to her, this is an extraordinary achievement made by all elements of the government, especially with Indonesia’s very wide geographical condition and very large population.
“It is extraordinary what President Joko Widodo, ministers, regional heads and institutions have done. It is extraordinary that handling COVID-19 for a country as big as ours is geographically complicated,” said Sri Mulyani.
In addition to achievements in handling COVID-19, Indonesia has also managed to become one of the few countries whose gross domestic product (GDP) has passed the 2019 pre-pandemic level by mid-2021.
She said many G20 and ASEAN member countries have not yet reached pre-pandemic levels and have not even recovered.
She explained that these two achievements cannot be separated from the role of the state budget (APBN) which is capable of being a shock absorber during times of crisis.
“This is an achievement for us in using the state budget for handling COVID-19 and for economic recovery,” she said.
Moreover, the government is also able to use the state budget prudently in dealing with COVID-19 and restoring the economy, which can be seen from the deficit and additional state debt which is relatively very modest compared to other countries.
“There are those whose deficits are double digits of 10 percent to 15 percent even though the economy has not yet recovered. We have a deficit in 2020 of 6 percent, down to 4.7 percent (2021). And we hope this year it will go down again,” she explained. (mhn/bbs)
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