JAKARTA: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo
(pic) asserted that the handling of Covid-19 cases is the key to drive the Indonesian economy.“The economic growth is showing an optimistic trend, while the trend of daily cases continues to decline,” he said.
He said Indonesia’s economic growth in 2020 was recorded at minus 2.1 percent. “We are only behind the Republic of China. [The economic growth] of the U.S, Japan, Germany, Italy, France were all also contracted,” he added.
At present, the daily number of Covid-19 in the archipelago is in the range of 4,000 to 5,000, much lower than that in January-February which was above 10,000.
“The enforcement of community activities on a micro-scale is still the key to controlling Covid-19,” he underlined.
Thus, he hoped this trend could be maintained and improved so that economic growth could continue to move in a positive direction.
The state head further asked the public to comply with the government’s policy on the homecoming or mudik ban during Eid al-Fitr holidays. “Our economic growth is already good, do not let it drop because of Covid-19 again.”
Jokowi recalled that the hike in people’s mobility during holidays led to an increase in Covid-19 cases. “If Eid homecoming is not prohibited, we have calculated that there will be a surge of positive cases to 120,000-140,000 per day. So we must keep suppressing it,” he said.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo talked about rice import during a dialogue with farmers in his working visit to Wanasari Village, Indramayu, West Java.
“The government is actually not pleased, we are not in favour of rice imports. But we lack [rice supply] because many [farms] have been affected by flooding and pandemic, so we need additional reserves,” he said as broadcast on the YouTube channel of the Presidential Secretariat.
However, the government decided not to import rice at least until June 2021. “Inshallah until the end of the year, if we can keep the production well, we will not also carry out imports,” he added.
The state head expressed happiness that the rice crop in Wanasari Village reached 8 tons per hectare. The price of unhusked rice (gabah) has also risen to Rp4,200 per kilogram.
“We have still received complaints from farmers, for example, farmers find difficulties obtaining subsidised fertilisers and seeking labour for harvesting. They also ask for tractors and pumps that I have already said yes. They will be delivered soon,” he said.
Jokowi hoped that the country’s agricultural production would improve to achieve food security and self-sufficiency so that Indonesia would no longer import but export rice.
Also, the Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Minister Arifin Tasrif on Tuesday’s National Energy Council (DEN) plenary said Indonesia plans to stop imports of fuel (BBM) and LPG in 2030.
The meeting, led by President Widodo was aimed as discussing national strategic plans from 2021 to 2025.
One of the main issues discussed in the plenary was the increasing demands for long-term energy and the limited domestic supply.
“We plan to no longer import BBM and LPG by year 2030,” said Arifin Tasrif at a press conference after the meeting.
LPG is one of the routinely imported commodities. Pertamina president director Nic Widyawati said the volume of LPG imports will also rise in 2021, for subsidised and unsubsidised types, which is a 6.2 million metric growth compared to 2020.
President Jokowi since 2019 has been calling to stop LPG imports as he intends to utilise local coal production that can be processed into LPG. Other aspects discussed at the meeting were carbon emissions reduction.
