House Vice Speaker M. Azis Syamsuddin held on Tuesday (14/4/2020) a virtual conference about parliament’s role in maintaining law stability and economic sustainability as well as finding business solutions to the Covid-19 crisis. The so-called “Ngobrol Santai” (casual talk) meeting was attended by Indonesian Employers Association (APINDO) Chairman Haryadi Sukamdani, Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) Chairman Rosan Roeslani, Association of Young Indonesian Businesspeople (HIPMI) Chairman Mardani Maming, former Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) President Director Tito Sulistio, member of the Commission XI of the Indonesian House Mukhamad Misbakhun, and some editors in chief.

In the meeting, they briefed the Vice Speaker about the current situation of the real sector from the employer’s point of view. Most of the economic sectors are hit hard and they can only survive until the next three to five months. According to APINDO, private industries saw a 30 to 90 percent decline in production and manufacturing activities. Therefore, employers are now heavily relying on the stimulus package that will be delivered by the government.

In his response, Syamsuddin called to attention the government’s measures to minimize the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak, particularly on the economic and investment sectors. Those measures are stipulated in the Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) No. 1/2020 on State Financial Policy and Financial System Stability that has been submitted to the House earlier this month. Though it has not been approved yet, the Golkar Party politician said there were still some provisions that needed to be discussed at the Leaders Meeting and Steering Committee meeting due to be held in the near future.

"I’ll try to draw an outline of the Perppu, which is a summary of what have been done, although it still needs to be deliberated in the Leaders Meeting with all the 5 House Leaders, and then passed on to the Steering Committee Meeting where all the leaders of political party groups will discuss in the near future. What you have been sharing today have all been accommodated by the Perppu No. 1/2020. It includes the stimulus contained in Article 16 concerning the authority of Bank Indonesia to control liquidity and repurchase government bonds, but certainly based on recommendations from the IDIC,” Syamsuddin said at the parliamentary compound, Senayan, Jakarta, Tuesday (14/4/2020).

For this reason, Chair of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Roslan Roeslani called upon all parties to anticipate the aftermath of Covid-19 outbreak. He said that all investors throughout the world currently are still in the “wait and see” status when it comes to investing. In addition, the amount of capital outflow that occurred during the pandemic period was very significant. He also saw the efforts to continue the deliberations of the Job Creation Bill as an anticipation and response to current economic conditions. He believed the investment climate in Indonesia remains potential due to the strong economic fundamentals prior the Covid-19 outbreak.

"Indonesia has been affected, but certainly you can’t discount the fact that this outbreak also happens all over the world. It must be anticipated, because you don’t want to fall too far behind when things start to look up. The Job Creation Bill is also an anticipatory step. The impacts of the draft may not be visible at the moment, but once this outbreak is all over, we will see great results. We must always ensure ease of doing business, and we must be prepared whenever investment comes. That way, when the economy improves, good structural reforms will already be in place," Roeslani said.

The Chair of APINDO, Hariyanto Sukamdani, shared the same view with Rosan as he offered some recommendations on the matter. In terms of the Employment Security System (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan), for example, he hoped that the House together with the government can come up with a regulation, so those whose employment status are not terminated can also receive the fund. In addition to that, he also suggested that Pre-employment Card budget be reallocated from training budget to cash transfer for the card holders.

“Regarding the religious holiday allowance (tunjangan hari raya/THR), the real sector businessmen suggest that companies should be granted with flexibilities to postpone the payment by the end of 2020, or if the companies do not have enough fund to pay for it, they can provide it in installments. As for the Eid al-Fitr homebound Exodus (Mudik), the government is expected to impose stricter rules to ban the annual tradition entirely. Representatives of Regional Transportation Organization (Organda) also voiced their opinion on the issue. They think it will be very hard for them to implement emergency protocols to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 if people are allowed to go on Mudik. I would also suggest that provisions on minimum payment for gas and electricity bills be eliminated, and that the price-per-killowatt rate be lowered in light of the drop in global oil prices,” he asked.

Azis closed the discussion by expressing his gratitude to all the participants for their suggestions. They will be discussed in the following parliamentary sessions . “What we are focusing is for the Financial System Stability Committee, which includes Ministry of Finance, the Indonesian Central Bank, the Financial Service Authority, and the Indonesian Deposit Insurance Corporation to be included in the Perppu. But we will see how we can bring this up in our discussion. We need to underline here that there will be no changes to the Perppu after the deliberation since the 2nd Level Deliberation is organized only to approve or reject a decision,” Azis explained. (alw/sf)