Jakarta – Public service agencies (BLUs) have helped Indonesia’s economy recover relatively quickly from the COVID-19 pandemic and record higher growth, Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, has said.
Indonesia’s economic growth has been one of the highest among the G20 and ASEAN countries.
“This would not have been possible without BLUs’ contribution, which made extraordinarily hard adjustments during a pandemic,” Indrawati said at the “2023 BLU Coordination Meeting (Rakor),” which was accessed online from here on Thursday.
During the pandemic, BLUs continued to make a significant contribution to non-tax state revenues (PNBP).
In 2020, their contribution to PNBP was Rp69.31 trillion; in 2021, the figure increased to Rp126.02 trillion; and in 2022, it declined to Rp89.5 trillion.
In addition, BLUs also provided services to the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, she noted.
As of 2022, the health BLU had served more than 12.15 million inpatients and outpatients, up 22.91 percent from 2021.
The government allocated a big budget for the health sector during the pandemic. The budget was allocated to the Ministry of Health, and most of it was provided to hospitals with BLU status.
The Finance Minister then thanked the health BLU for working hard during the three years of the pandemic and expressed the hope that the hospital BLU would continue to use the budget in an accountable manner.
Besides the health BLU, the education BLU also worked hard to provide services to the community during the pandemic.
A total of 185,632 students (from disadvantaged groups and 3T areas) received discounted rates and scholarships in 2022.
“We also provided free Internet quota through BLU because of changes in learning methods at that time,” Indrawati noted.
Then, there were several other BLUs that also worked hard during the pandemic, such as the infrastructure BLU that connects the Internet network in 57 regencies/cities in the 3T regions.
The BLUs also provided incentives for the production of 10.6 million kiloliters of biodiesel in 2022, an increase of 15.5 percent compared to 2021.
The infrastructure BLU also procured land for 52 toll roads, 37 dams, 9 railway lines, a port, 5 irrigation facilities, a National Tourism Strategic Area (KSPN) in Mandalika, and a raw water national strategic project (PSN).
In the meantime, the BLU for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) also provided Rp43.1 trillion in financing to more than 7.8 million MSMEs.
Anangfadhilah/antara
