TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has called on the members of her ministry to maintain comradeship and friendship amid the COVID-19 pandemic as she viewed it was unlikely for the pandemic to end in the near future.

“I would like to say this to all leaders and executors, you are bound to face a long period of challenges, so please preserve our comradeship as people of this country, or even as members of the human race, because the COVID-19 does not only exist in Indonesia,” Sri said in a virtual friendly gathering of the ministry on Monday, May 25, 2020.

“In [the spirit] of comradeship and humanity we will keep our unity, protect our minds and hearts, so as to keep striving wherever we are,” she said.

Sri added since the year’s onset her ministry had been formulating the right design for the nation’s economy so as to cope with the pandemic. Some of the policies encompassed the first to the third economic stimuli, the Government Regulation in lieu of Law No. 1 Year 2020 and derivative regulations, she added.

“Our journey is not finished yet, we are still in the beginning,” she said.

Sri Mulyani also guaranteed her ministry’s commitment would remain intact in undertaking state duties amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “Despite the changes in the way we work and carry out our responsibilities, but the essence is our commitment is unchanged,” Sri Mulyani said.

CAESAR AKBAR