National Committee Chairman Luhut Panjaitan said here on Thursday that preparations continued to be made, including rehabilitating areas in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara Province, which had been affected by recent quakes.
"Tourists have already started coming again to Lombok. That is why we have organized interesting events to attract more tourists," he noted.
Panjaitan, who is also the coordinating minister for maritime affairs, called on all parties to help in the preparatory efforts to organize the biggest meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from across the world.
He remarked that he was grateful that calls for the government to declare earthquakes in Lombok as a national disaster had not been adhered to by the government.
"That is why I had advised critics not to speak cynically and called for the declaration of a national disaster. My team has just returned and they said it was lucky we did not declare it as a national disaster," he revealed.
He said if the government had declared the earthquakes as a national disaster, other countries would produce travel warnings for their citizens who wished to visit Indonesia and the tourism sector and the scheduled IMF-WB meeting could have been affected.
"If travel warnings are produced, insurance companies will not give protection. That is why we are now organizing interesting events to attract tourists," he added.
Panjaitan explained that the government was convinced that the IMF-WB Meeting in Bali would proceed as scheduled in view of the results of study made by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).
He stated that the location of the meeting would be safe even if there would be another earthquake in Lombok.
According to BMKG, the tip of the plate stops in Lombok, and so the earthquake would not reach Bali. That is what has made the IMF-WB meeting venue a safe area.
At the meeting, Indonesia plans to raise five main issues, namely strengthening international monetary system; digital economic development and risks; emerging countries` needs to meet infrastructure development funding; strengthening shariah financial and economic aspect; and fiscal policy sector covering urbanization, digital economy, human capital, disaster risk management, climate change, and infrastructure funding.
Reporting by Indra Arief Pribadi
Editing by Yoseph Haryadi
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Suharto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
