JAKARTA - The government needs to speed up the disbursement of the coronavirus (COVID-19) economic stimulus to businesses and the public to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic, said Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Deputy Chair Erwin Aksa.
“We hope the Financial System Stability Committee, which consists of the Finance Minister, the Bank Indonesia Governor, the Financial Services Authority, and the Indonesian Deposit Insurance Corporation will make decisions swiftly because the longer it takes, the more we will need and the more difficult our economic conditions will be,” Mr Aksa said in an online discussion on Thursday (18/6) as quoted by Antara.
“Businesses are not resilient enough, and without resilience business owners will go bust.”
According to Mr Aksa, the government needs to provide liquidity including working capital for businesses and cash assistance for the public to maintain purchasing power and market demand. In addition, the government is also expected to launch a bigger stimulus package.
Previously, Kadin advised that the government increase its COVID-19 stimulus package from Rp 405 trillion to Rp 1,600 trillion.
“We need a very large amount of stimulus. We should not let the economy drop with slow recovery such as what happened in 1998,” Mr Aksa concluded. (MS)