Community-driven businesses are in dire need of an intervention and special treatments from state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to maintain economic stability, House Vice Speaker for Industry and Development Rachmat Gobel argued.

“One of the ways to do this is through partnership and better access to capital or stimulus program that involve state-owned enterprises (SOEs),” said Gobel in a virtual meeting between Commission VII (energy, R&D, environment) of the Indonesian House and the board of directors of the state-owned oil and gas holding company PT Pertamina and state-owned gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN), recently.

In his statement, Gobel elaborated on how the COVID-19 outbreak has taken its toll on the national economy and even the world economy. A number of business sectors under the line of business of SOEs are also affected. Real actions are badly needed so that SOEs could contribute significantly in addressing the repercussions of COVID-19.

"It takes precautionary measures to keep SOEs alive, while allowing them to contribute in the government’s effort of mitigating impacts of the outbreak in this difficult situations," the Gorontalo City legislator added. 

The virtual meeting was aimed to evaluate the performance of the two state-owned enterprises (Pertamina and PGN) amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and assess whether concrete measures such as corporate social responsibility programs are feasible to safeguard small and medium enterprises as the main driving force of community-driven businesses. (ayu/es)