The consumption of the large middle-class society will determine Indonesia's condition in the future
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara has said that he believes COVID-19 will become endemic because the government has managed to suppress virus transmission and has continued to strengthen health protocols, vaccinations, and health facilities.

"If this (progress) continues, we are no longer going to live with the COVID-19 pandemic but (see it turn) endemic. This virus is together with us, but we will keep invigorating health protocols so that we can co-exist with COVID-19," Nazara remarked at the online InFest Incubation 2021 here on Monday.

Vaccinations and ways of living a healthy life will keep being encouraged, he said.

Through constant control over the spread of COVID-19 and other diseases, economic activity is expected to return to normal so that economic growth can recover and reach the same level as before the pandemic, he added.

"When economic activities run again, we hope the economy and the business world will turn better. As with the (resumption) of community mobility, banks can perform their intermediation function again," he remarked.
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Furthermore, he also expressed the hope that economic growth will return to the same path as seen in the last 20 years, supported mainly by the middle class that dominates Indonesian society.

"The consumption of the large middle-class society will determine Indonesia's condition in the future," he said.

Therefore, according to Nazara, it is necessary to provide the right information related to financial and other sectors to the middle class.

"They will decide because of their huge (population). For example, if most of the young middle-class society does not eat healthy food, we will encounter health problems in the next 20 years," he explained.

The government has carried out structural reforms by issuing the Job Creation Law that has changed the licensing bureaucracy, provided a guarantee against community losses, created a new foundation for halal products and the management of investment, he added


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Translator: Sanya S, Kenzu T
Editor: Suharto
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