Written by Student Reporter (Deo Fernando, Entrepreneurship 2021)

“I have seen three times crisis in my whole career. And today’s crisis is not the same as before,” said the Vice Minister of SOEs, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, on Saturday (7/11/2020).

Began his session with how the SOEs was a pillar to economic recovery, he showed data of total income of SOEs in which pointed to IDR 8,400 trillion or bigger than the asset owned by the government at IDR 6,000 trillion. SOEs, as he explained, consistently contributed 16% to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “This data shows SOEs as one of the pillars to build the Indonesian economy,” told Chairman of the National Economic Recovery and Transformation Task Force (PEN).

Realizing the potential, according to Budi, the government set SOEs to support economy recovery amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. “If the government wants to solve the economic crisis, the first thing that should be solved is the health crises. Policy should come from the health sector, not from the economics. We cannot recover the economy before the health crisis can be resolved,” said the successful banker.

Further, he continued, “BUMN companies then can take part in this situation by providing vaccines through Biofarma and health facilities. It is now also the time to improve our health sector,” he emphasized.

Different from previous crises ignited by the financial issues, today’s disasters were started by the health issues later causing an economic breakdown. “This health crises forces us to do less contact with others or what we call physically distancing,” he said. Physical distancing, according to him, impacted the economy since the economy needed physical contact or interaction. “Physical market is bigger than virtual market and all industries need physical contact,” as Budi told the BLEMBA class in Jakarta.

The Business Leadership Executive MBA (BLEMBA) is a degree program specifically designed for practitioners, policy makers, and scholars at all sectors in Indonesia. Started in 2007, BLEMBA has successfully produced outstanding alumni serve at senior positions in their respected companies.