Indonesia’s Business Community Demands Fair and Free Covid-19 Vaccination

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – The Indonesian Employers Association (APINDO) has asked the government to make the Covid-19 vaccine free of charge for the country’s citizens.

APINDO Chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani said that priority should be given to medical workers, children, teachers, and older people in Indonesia’s Covid-19 vaccination program.

However, he said that other groups such as factory workers cannot be ignored.

“It is with the hope that the government will provide vaccination not only to certain groups but to everyone in society including the workers who pay the state.”

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Hariyadi said that limitations to the provision of complimentary Covid-19 vaccines in Indonesia will put workers at a disadvantage as they may be working for a company that does not have the financial means to support its employees.

Further, he stressed how there have been numerous companies across Indonesia that have been severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

“If the cost of the Covid-19 vaccines is expensive, then what are we to do? What happens if a company has plenty of employees and not just one or two?"

"We must get to the bottom of this because this is linked to the safety of every individual.”

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