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Economic Stimulus Policy Must Be Accompanied By Social Protection For Informal Workers

The government launched five economic stimulus packages during June and July 2025. This policy package is expected to support the movement of the national economy. However, economists consider that the issuance of this policy package must be accompanied by adaptive social protection for the community. 

Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia (FEB UI), Teguh Dartanto, said that the policy package launched by the government is proof that the state is present for the people. However, this stimulus is considered not to have reached all levels of society. 

"The government is now trying to be present. Yes, maybe I dare to say that the government has provided a lot of stimulus, the last one was five," said Teguh, at the Soemitro Economic Forum, in Jakarta, Wednesday (4/6/2025). 

However, Teguh assessed that this stimulus only targets people from the working class. Meanwhile, there has been no stimulus launched specifically for people who are unemployed, have just been laid off, or those who are vulnerable to being laid off. 

"This is for people who are still working. What about people who have been laid off, is there any intervention that has been done? How do we protect jobs? How do we protect the jobs themselves?" said Teguh. 

According to him, the government needs to build adaptive social protection. This idea is based on the idea of ??Soemitro Djojohadikusumo who emphasized the principle of equal welfare. 

"Our social protection is very state driven, meaning very controlled by the state. Who has the right, the state determines. Is there an element that when conditions like this, people who need it have a say? To get that, that's why I always talk about the existence of on-demand applications for social protection," he said. 

Teguh said that the social protection provided by the state should be able to provide economic protection space that reaches the unemployed, who have just been affected by layoffs or are vulnerable to layoffs. 

He gave an example of what happened on campus. Not all students come from wealthy families. Suddenly their parents were laid off so they couldn't pay their tuition fees. This was not because they were poor, but suddenly there was a shock. 

"This happens a lot, but our social protection system does not provide space for people who are in need, there is space for people who need it. There is no on-demand application," he said. 

Tag: FEB UI Soemitro Economic Forum University Of Indonesia