Badung, Bali (ANTARA) - UN deputy secretary general Amina Mohammed praised Indonesia for successfully controlling COVID-19 so that the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) forum could be held face-to-face in Nusa Dua, Bali.
"I would like to express the UN appreciation to the President and people of Indonesia for hosting GPDRR forum 2022," Amina said at the opening ceremony of the forum in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Wednesday.
"I would like to say congratulation and offer appreciation to Indonesia for its steps to handle and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic that allow us to gather for this conference in person," she added.
The UN deputy secretary general described Indonesia's effort to vaccinate 217 million citizens against COVID-19 as a great achievement.
"We praised the Indonesian leader for his vaccination program to keep all people safe and act and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic," she said.
Indonesia is an important partner country that has taught the world about disaster risk mitigation efforts, she added.P
Meanwhile, President Joko Widodo said the government implemented dynamic policies to handle COVID-19 based on the situation at hand, such as the "gas and brake" policy, which sought to strike a balance between public health and economic interests.
"The policy proves effective to have a good impact," he remarked.
He said Indonesia, which is made up of 17 thousand islands and has a population of 217 million people, has administered 411 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine so far.
Indonesia's daily COVID-19 cases have dropped drastically from 64 thousand cases per day during the peak to 345 cases per day as of Tuesday (May 24, 2022), he noted.
"In addition, economic growth could be maintained at 5.01 percent and inflation rate at 3.5 percent," he said.
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