Indonesia Highlights: Indonesia’s Top Diplomat Urges End to the Nationalization of Covid-19 Vaccines | World Bank: The Indonesian Economy Will Take Years to Get Back to Pre-Covid-19 Levels | Man in E

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi calls for an end to the nationalization of the Covid-19 pandemic, as countries around the world scrambled for a vaccine.

World Bank managing director and former Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu warned that Indonesia will take years to get back on its economic feet, especially if the country’s economy underwent another contraction.

And a man in East Java’s Madura Island faced death in the form of a tornado and lived to tell the tale. Read more on these stories as curated by our editors:

KOMPAS.com/PALUPI ANNISA AULIANI Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi speaks to Kompas.com during a virtual interview on Thursday, January 14, 2021.

Indonesia’s Top Diplomat Urges End to the Nationalization of Covid-19 Vaccines

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has called on countries around the world not to put their nationals interests first in obtaining the Covid-19 vaccine.

“I urge the world’s countries not to nationalize the Covid-19 vaccine, as the pandemic is a humanitarian issue, not a political one,” she said in a press release on Saturday, January 30.

“I hope that using multilateral diplomacy can help distribute the vaccines equally among developing and developed countries, as a more impartial distribution of the vaccine can help the world bounce back more strongly from the Covid-19 pandemic.”

But Retno admitted that challenges remain in achieving equal distribution of the vaccines. “Ensuring the vaccines’ availability will be challenging, as will collaborating with researchers and manufacturers, as are funding,” she noted.

“Ensuring that developed countries are ready for the vaccine will also be a challenge.”

She asserted that she will use her position as co-chair of the COVAX AMC EG to ensure global vaccine supplies by applying the principles of Transparency, Certainty and Solidarity to ensure that they are free, safe and effective for the world’s people.

Source:

https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2021/01/30/06334021/menlu-retno-hentikan-politisasi-dan-nasionalisme-vaksin-covid-19. 

KOMPAS.com/Ihsanuddin World Bank Managing Director and former Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu meets the press on Tuesday (11/2/2020)

World Bank: The Indonesian Economy Will Take Years to Get Back to Pre-Covid-19 Levels

World Bank Managing Director for Development Policy and Partnerships Mari Elka Pangestu has estimated that the Indonesian economy will need a number of years to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The Indonesian economy will need three to five years to get back to pre-Covid-19 levels if it contracted annually by two percent. The contraction will also economic growth to slow by at least one percent to four percent annually,” she said on Saturday, January 29.