Indonesia’s Jokowi says pandemic can spur ‘big leap forward’ for economy
- Indonesia has the highest Covid-19 death toll in Southeast Asia and lockdowns have decimated business
- The President’s priorities announced during his state of the union address include slashing oil imports, reforming the health sector and strengthening food supply chains
Widodo, commonly known as Jokowi, made the remarks in his annual state-of-the-union speech to Parliament. Due to coronavirus precautions, less than half of the lawmakers were present for his address, with the rest watching online.
Likening the current economic situation to “a computer crash” causing stagnation, he said Indonesia, along with other countries, must “shutdown, restart and reboot”.
“We must not let the crisis bring about setbacks. In fact, we must capitalise on the crisis as a momentum to make a big leap,” said Widodo, who was wearing a traditional outfit from the Sabu people in the eastern part of the archipelago.
The government expects the economy to post near flat growth this year due to the pandemic, which has infected over 132,000 people and caused nearly 6,000 deaths in the country, the highest death toll in Southeast Asia. Last year, the economy grew 5 per cent.
The economy shrank 5.32 per cent year on year in the second quarter, its first contraction in more than two decades, as movement restrictions to contain the coronavirus outbreak decimated business. The government plans to spend as much as 1,476 trillion rupiah (US$99 million) in the six months through December to boost the economy, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said last week.
