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IMF shows support, donates to rehabilitation programs
Ahead of the International Monetary Fund-World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Nusa Dua, Bali, officials said they would support the rehabilitation of West Nusa Tenggara and Central Sulawesi
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span>Ahead of the International Monetary Fund-World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Nusa Dua, Bali, officials said they would support the rehabilitation of West Nusa Tenggara and Central Sulawesi.
On Monday, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde — accompanied by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan and Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo — visited Guntur Macan village in West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, which was hit by recent earthquakes.
The village is home to 925 families whose homes were damaged by the series of earthquakes, which struck in July and August.
According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), as of Oct. 1, 564 people were killed, 1,584 injured and more than 400,000 were displaced.
Two months later, an earthquake followed by a tsunami hit Central Sulawesi, which killed more than 1,500 people.
Speaking to the press during her visit to Lombok, Lagarde offered her sympathy to Indonesia over the devastating natural disasters that the country experienced, including the eruption of Mount Agung in Bali several months earlier. She also praised the government’s handling of the disasters.
“We couldn’t foresee that Mt. Agung in Bali would erupt, [nor could we predict] the earthquakes in Lombok and the earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi. All of those were unpredictable, but we know that Indonesia could handle it,” Lagarde said.
Post-disaster rehabilitation efforts would become a topic of discussion during the annual meetings, focusing on insurance, according to Luhut.
“[Natural disaster insurance] will become one of the topics, so it can get global attention. Because earthquakes do not only occur in Indonesia, they also occur in Chile, Japan, and so on. Hence, it’s a global problem,” he said.
During the visit, the IMF donated Rp 2 billion (US$131,026) — which came from the organization’s management and staff members — to the survivors of the earthquakes and tsunami.
The donation will be distributed to the Indonesian Red Cross and a number of NGOs, such as World Central Kitchen and World Vision.
Lagarde vowed that the aid would not stop there because she would ask all participants of the annual meetings for donations.
Luhut and BI also pledged to donate Rp 500 million each for post-disaster rehabilitation programs.
On Sunday, Lagarde, Luhut and Sri Mulyani attended an event on Nusa Dua Beach, Bali, to support the rehabilitation and replanting of coral reefs.
Lagarde said the event was aimed to improve the marine environment because most coral reefs in the world’s oceans were predicted to be extinct by 2050.
“We have to start from something, to wake us up that we need to respect the environment and protect it,” she added.
