The committee has been tasked with assessing the current economic situation and monitoring the development of COVID-19. It will also look into the availability of testing equipment and the development of vaccines and antidotes for the novel coronavirus disease, besides the multi-year economic program.
At a press conference held earlier in the day at the Presidential Office in Jakarta, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, said the formation of the team is based on a Government Regulation (PP) on the COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Committee.
The President has assigned the task of supervising the handling of COVID-19 and national economic recovery to the policy committee, he added.
The President has asked Hartarto to coordinate the policy team with its deputy chairmen — the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, the Coordinating Minister for Human Development, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Home Affairs, and the Minister of Health.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises will act as the executor of the committee, and coordinate with the chair of the Economic Task Force and the chair of the COVID-19 Task Force.
The COVID-19 Task Force will continue to be handled by Doni Monardo, chief of the National Disaster Handling Agency, and the Economic Task Force by SOE Deputy Minister Budi Gunawan Sadikin, Hartarto informed.
“So, we (can) see that the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic will take time, and therefore, the President has assigned the team to fully plan and execute programs, so that COVID-19 handling and economic recovery go hand in hand in the sense that both are handled by the same institution and (with) maximum coordination,” Hartarto reiterated.
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Translator: Rangga Pandu Asmara Jingga /Ar
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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