TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo or Jokowi presided over a limited cabinet meeting Monday at the Presidential Office to discuss efforts to leverage the country’s competitiveness index and the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

“The limited meeting this afternoon is about the improvement of Indonesian tourism. But in the meeting we will also do some calculation and decide on the stimulus for the tourism industry in light of the coronavirus outbreak,” Jokowi said as he opened the meeting.

Jokowi said the rank of Indonesia’s tourism competitiveness in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index had been showing an upward trend. In 2015, Indonesia ranked 50^th before climbing to 42^nd in 2017 and 40^th in 2019.

However, he added, Indonesia was still lagging behind neighboring countries in the ASEAN region such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Thus, the president called on his ministers to look into to this situation so as to further improve Indonesia’s rank in the future.

“When compared to our neighboring countries, for example, Singapore is 17^th, Malaysia 29^th and Thailand 31^st. I think we have to pay attention to this so we can improve in the four sub-indexes and the 14 pillars that become the benchmark of the world’s competitiveness index,” he said.

The President said in the index Indonesia had 5 superiorities compared to other countries in terms of price competitiveness, policy priorities, natural attractiveness, openness, as well as cultural attractiveness and business visits.

However, Jokowi added, Indonesia was still weak in the five other pillars, viz. sustainable environment, health and hygiene, tourism infrastructure, security, and information technology preparedness.

Translator: Egi Adyatama | Translator: Galuh Kurnia Ramadhani (Intern Translator)