TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Monday ratified the President’s Regulation on the formation of a COVID-19 national economic recovery body. The Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto has been appointed as its leader.

“Surely, they’re tasked to oversee the national economy, the development related to COVID-19,” said Airlanffa at the Presidential Office in Central Jakarta on Monday.

According to Airlangga, the government calculates that the recovery of the national economy - which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic - will take time and notes that President Jokowi had instructed the team to schedule and execute programs that would simultaneously handle the economic recovery and pandemic mitigation in parallel.

“Both issues are handled by the same government body which maximizes the coordination efforts,” said Airlangga Hartarto.

Moreover, State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir has been appointed to be the chief executive and lead the coordination between the national COVID-19 task force and the new national economic recovery task force, which will be led by SOEs deputy minister Budi Gunawan Sadikin.

The economic recovery team will not only focus on the pandemic’s economic aspects but will also focus on the COVID-19 vaccine and antibody, apart from the economic programs that runs alongside it.

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EGI ADYATAMA