Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has invited ASEAN countries to take a cue from Indonesia that has made the most of the pandemic situation to conduct structural reforms to boost the region's economic growth.
President Jokowi made the statement during his speech at the "ASEAN Business and Investment Summit" broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube channel and quoted here, Monday.
"In the face of the current pandemic, we are not only aiming to recover but also to capitalize on the opportunity during the pandemic to conduct structural reforms for inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the ASEAN region. This opportunity is huge for us to seize as we did in Indonesia," President Jokowi remarked.
The head of state noted that the hustle and bustle in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic did not dampen Indonesia's intentions to conduct structural reforms.
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Indonesia issued the Omnibus Law on Job Creation Law to boost the investment climate in order to drive inclusive economic growth that supports the creation of jobs. In addition, the president noted that the Taxation Law was revised with the same objective.
"We want to continue these structural reforms to respond to records of institutional weaknesses and our way of working when we were tested by the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, we took advantage of the severe test in the form of a pandemic to strengthen ourselves in facing future challenges," the president affirmed.
President Jokowi emphasized that as a unitary economic community, ASEAN is a region that must take lessons from the crisis and make fundamental self-improvements at the regional level.
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After 20 months of facing the huge difficulties arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is now a new ray of hope, he affirmed.
In the past week, COVID-19 cases in the ASEAN region fell 14 percent, much better than the world average, which declined by one percent.
According to the president, this situation will increase ASEAN's internal and external confidence to resume activities and will accelerate economic recovery.
"However, the ASEAN should maintain vigilance, given the increasing number of cases in several countries," President Jokowi emphasized.
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