\n6207 Deaths<\/strong>
\n94,458 Recoveries\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Rupiah to US$14,917<\/strong> Overview-<\/strong><\/p>\n Indonesia celebrated its 75th Independence day on August 17th, 2020. (Merdeka !) President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) presided over the Independence Day ceremony along with a handful of state officials and dignitaries at the Presidential Palace in Central Jakarta. In stark contrast to previous Independence Day ceremonies, this year\u2019s commemoration was a relatively subdued affair as most of the event took place digitally due to concerns over COVID-19.<\/p>\n Case growth continues at a 10% pace. Active cases (total cases minus recoveries and fatalities) grew 3% after flatlining for 3 weeks. Jakarta and West Java are growth areas for new infections whereas Central and East Java remained flat.<\/p>\n Local phase 3 trial of a vaccine developed by China\u2019s Sinovac has begun.\u00a0If it goes well Indonesia plans to inoculate 70% of its population with PT Biofarma expanding production facilities.\u00a0Indonesia\u2019s council of Islamic clerics (MUI) determined that although the trial vaccine, imported from China, was not halal, Indonesians could take it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A South Korean company is working with the Health Ministry to conduct trials of a COVID therapy utilizing stem cells.<\/p>\n Travel- Not Opening Until End of the Year<\/strong><\/p>\n The date for reopening Bali for tourists, announced earlier as September 11 by its Governor, now appears to have been postponed.\u00a0Meanwhile, 7,000 Australian tourists who extended their visas due to COVID-19 are being asked to leave when the extension ends August 20. According to CNN Indonesia, Coordinating Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, speaking on a webinar organized by the Indonesian Employers Association (APINDO) said: \u201cWe want domestic tourists to reach 70 percent [of previous levels]. The problem with foreign visitors [is] we will not accept them until the end of the year.\u201d He did not give any further details, but those comments suggest that Jakarta will extend restrictions banning all foreigners\u2014except for diplomats, aid workers, and those with work or residence permits\u2014from entering the country at large.\u00a0Erick Thohir, chief of Indonesia’s national economic and COVID-19 recovery announced that Indonesia will remain closed to foreign tourists at least until the end of the year or until a vaccine is developed.<\/p>\n Economic<\/strong><\/p>\n Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Relief Aid Delayed:<\/strong> Roughly only 22.4% of Indonesia\u2019s stimulus package had been spent since the stimulus plan\u2019s launch in March. The package had been split between health and economic recovery programs ranging from corporate tax exemptions to food and cash aid for households.\u00a0Finance Minister Sri Mulyani announced a plan to fast track cash assistance via low income workers already registered for worker insurance.\u00a0Apparently, some of the delays in rolling out social assistance funds has to do with inaccuracies and gaps in the government\u2019s existing databases of eligible recipients.\u00a0However, left out are the large group of informal workers who are not registered.\u00a0But some of them will indirectly benefit as they provide goods and services to those in the \u201cformal\u201d sector.<\/p>\n (sources: International and Indonesia news media, Bali Update (from balidiscovery.com), Reformasi Weekly)<\/em><\/p>\n [\/fusion_text][\/fusion_builder_column][\/fusion_builder_row][\/fusion_builder_container]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” overlay_color=”” video_preview_image=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2194,"menu_order":25,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"side-navigation.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3600","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3600"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3604,"href":"http:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3600\/revisions\/3604"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/aiccusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJakarta Stock Exchange Index: 5,247<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/aiccusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/covid-August-17.png\")
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