Bank Indonesia: PPKM, Vaccine Policies Must Be In Sync

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo asked the Indonesian Bachelor of Economics Association (ISEI) to support the synchronization of policies, particularly the restrictions on community activities—known as PPKM—with vaccine rollouts, before reopening industries. Speaking at the ISEI web seminar on Tuesday, August 31, Perry said that ISEI members must improve their strategic role to help respond to the many challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

One of the main strategies is to encourage government initiatives to accelerate the recovery of the national economy.

"There needs to be a synchronization between PPKM and vaccination, in this case, for the opening of productive and safe sectors," Perry said.

Syncing PPKM and vaccine policies is a necessity to ensure effective mitigation. Perry added that in addition to policy synchronization, economic recovery efforts also require fiscal, monetary, and bank credit support.

The Indonesian government had eased PPKM in Java and Bali—lowering the alert level from 4 to 3. The restriction easing was followed by the reopening of all industry sectors to 100 percent. At the same time, the government is fast-tracking vaccine rollouts to curb transmission rates.

Perry, who is the current chairman of ISEI since 2018, added that ISEI must play a role in supporting the implementation of structural reforms to help Indonesia move forward.

This support can take the form of encouraging downstream manufacturing, strengthening economic chains, infrastructure development as well as physical and digital connectivity, creative economic development and entrepreneurship, as well as exploring the potentials of a green economy.

He also mentioned the need to accelerate the rate of economics and financial digitization, which has blossomed during the pandemic.

Read: BI Pushes Digital Finance Development

Francisca Christy Rosana | Maudey K. Setyakusuma