Jakarta. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo expressed optimism on Thursday that Indonesia will soon regain lost ground in early 2021 after year-long economic hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“As we are entering 2021, I can say with confidence that our country will recover and come up with many innovations,” the president said in a video message on New Year eve.

“There have been signs of economic recovery since the third quarter of 2020 and continued until the fourth quarter. New investments are arriving and they will propel the economy and our industries,” he said without going into details.

The president said the pandemic has put the country to the test throughout 2020 and that the Indonesian people could stand strong to cope with it, despite many losing their income sources.

“We adapted ourselves to new ways in limiting the damages caused by the pandemic and solve economic problems one at a time,” he said.

“But it doesn’t mean that we have solved the problem entirely. There is one most important thing to do to reach a full recovery, namely to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic.”

In doing so, the government will launch mass vaccination for 181 million people starting in mid-January, he said.

“We need to do this to reach the herd immunity so that we can effectively stop the spread of Covid-19,” the president said.