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Indonesia Pins Recovery Hopes on Mass Vaccination of Workers and Reduced Regulation
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit Indonesia very hard, killing about 24,000 people. Some 800,000 have tested positive for the virus, which the country has yet to bring under control. The economy has been battered, shrinking by 2.2% in 2020 according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Remittances fell last year by an estimated $1.5 billion as more than 170,000 Indonesian migrant workers were repatriated from the Middle East, Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere.
The jobs of 29 million people — more than the entire population of Australia — were impacted by the crisis through a loss of livelihood or reduced working hours. Up to 20 million people may have been plunged into poverty. The country fell into recession for the first time in 22 years.
The World Bank reports that contact-intensive sectors which rely more on face-to-face interactions — including transport, hospitality, wholesale and retail trade, construction, manufacturing — were hit particularly hard. Tourism suffered, with Bali, Sumatra, Lombok and other popular destinations experiencing a sharp decline in visitors. The Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association reported that the crisis slashed Rp trillion ($5.8 billion) from the country’s tourist revenue by July 2020, with additional losses mounting as the year progressed.
