Public-Private Partnerships Pave Way for Economic Recovery: Grab
Jakarta. Stronger public-private partnerships can become the springboard for economic recovery, according to tech giant Grab Indonesia.
Earlier this month, Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto grew confident that Indonesia’s economic growth could reach 7-8 percent in the second quarter of 2021.
Meanwhile, Indonesia is also doubling down its efforts to vaccinate at least 181.5 million people or 70 percent of the population for herd immunity. The vaccination also brings a ray of hope for economic recovery.
But the government is not alone in this fight. Getting Indonesia back on its feet requires strong collaboration with the private sector. Since the pandemic dawned, Grab Indonesia has acted as a key partner for the government in dealing with the crisis.
In collaboration with the local and central governments, Grab has worked on more than 40 initiatives, which include supporting the vaccination drive and digitizing micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The partnership also encompasses restoring the stressed-out tourism industry.
According to Grab Indonesia president Ridzki Kramadibrata, now is the most important time to continue the public-private partnership. While Indonesia has created momentum for recovery, Ridzki warned that we must not be complacent.
“Grab will continue to be committed to being the government's strategic partner in this economic recovery,” Ridzki said.
“Why? Because everyone suffers from the impact of this pandemic. With the spirit of gotong royong [mutual cooperation], we must take a role to support our brothers and sisters so that we can all go through these challenging times together.”
So far, Grab has helped the vaccination drive in more than 53 cities and regencies across Indonesia. The area also covers remote cities such as Jayapura, Maros, Ambon, Bantul, Gowa, and many more. In this program, hundreds of thousands of Indonesians, including Grab’s driver-partners, have received their Covid-19 jabs.
“The geographic condition of Indonesia in the form of an archipelago presents its own challenges in providing vaccines that are evenly distributed and include all of them. The technology and wide reach of the Grab platform can help the government overcome this problem,” Ridzki said.
The Southeast Asian decacorn pledged to continue its support for the vaccination program.
Ridzki also noted how Grab spared no effort to help out MSMEs, Indonesia’s economic backbone.
Technology has become a “lifeline” for the MSMEs amid the pandemic, but many small businesses are still unfamiliar with business digitalization. In response, Grab’s #TerusUsaha campaign has facilitated millions of MSMEs to enter the digital platform.
“We hope they can enter the digital ecosystem and at the same time increase the financial inclusion of MSMEs, helping them to boost earnings and support the livelihoods of business owners and their families,” Ridzki said.
Grab is also teaming up with the government to save the pandemic-battered tourism, particularly at the super-priority tourist destinations. Among these initiatives include ramping up cleanliness, health, safety, and environmental sustainability (CHSE) protocol compliance to regain the people’s trust to travel.
“Grab is committed to continuing working together with the government in maintaining the recovery momentum,” Ridzki said.
“The growing number of vaccinated people and digitized MSMEs provides a strong platform for accelerated growth driven by public-private partnerships. We believe that we will see a brighter economic performance in the third quarter,” he said.
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