Indonesia’s leader Jokowi urges ministries to expedite disbursement of social assistance

JAKARTA, May 18, 2020, ANTARA. President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has appealed to related ministries to accelerate the distribution of social assistance to those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, ANTARA reported.

“We are upbeat about the next distribution (of social assistance) being conducted in a faster and smoother manner,” the head of state remarked after observing the distribution of social assistance in Johar Baru Sub-district, Jakarta, on Monday.

A total of 23,937 families in the sub-district received social assistance under the third phase of distribution.

The government has disbursed the third phase of social assistance to 961 thousand families of the total 1,215,237 beneficiaries in the capital city.

“The first and second phase (of the assistance) were already distributed. Yesterday and today, the people received (social assistance) under the third phase of distribution,” Jokowi added.

The government has worked jointly with state-owned postal service company and motor-taxi drivers to facilitate direct distribution of social assistance to the beneficiaries’ homes to avoid crowds and to lower the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

According to the city’s COVID-19 website, 1,178,173 households in the capital were registered as recipients of the assistance, while Jakarta has targeted to distribute the aid to 1.2 million households.

Names of the aid recipients were stipulated in Gubernatorial Decree No. 386 of 2020 as well as the contents of the aid package worth Rp275 thousand each. During the period from April to June 2020, two packages per month were given to each household.