COVID-19 patient under treatment at a hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Photo: Xinhua/ VNA) On August 18, Minister of Information and Communications Johnny G Plate said the allocated budget includes 255.3 trillion rupiah for health and 427.5 trillion rupiah for social protection activities. In particular, the budget will focus on activities such as testing, tracing, treatment, vaccination, and predicting the risk of disease impacts.
According to the minister, this budget will be used to encourage domestic vaccine production and promote the development of a more competitive pharmaceutical industry, while the Government will continue to carry out reforms of the health system.
Regarding the social protection fund, the minister said that 427.5 trillion rupiah is expected to be spent on supporting basic needs for the poor and vulnerable people in society, in order to reduce the poverty rate nationwide during the pandemic. The social protection budget will continue to improve the integrated Social Welfare Data system (DTKS) to have accurate data on those who need government support, to improve the quality of protection.
In addition, the Minister of Information and Communications said this budget will also support job promotion under the provisions of the Employment Creation Act (Omnibus)./.
VNA
