Tag: Indonesias

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Health

Indonesia’s well being minister on delta Covid surge, hospital capability

Indonesia's health minister on delta Covid surge, hospital capacity

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the Indonesian government increased hospital bed capacity in preparation for a surge in Covid infections after the holidays, but parts of the country are still running out of beds as daily cases hit new highs.

He told CNBC Street Signs Asia that Indonesia has up to 130,000 beds for Covid patients and 72,000 people have been in isolation beds as of yesterday.

But he admitted that the Southeast Asian nation faces two problems.

“The first problem is that the acceleration is much faster than it was in January and February,” he said. “So for a very dense area … we’re starting the mobility restrictions next week to ensure that the speed of incoming patients to the hospital is reduced.”

He attributed the increase in new cases to the Delta variant, which was first discovered in India.

Indonesia tightened restrictions on sources of infection last week and announced on Thursday that stricter emergency measures would apply from July 3 to July 20.

In the Jakarta region it already reaches 90% of the bed capacity.

Budi Gunadi Sadikin

Indonesia’s Minister of Health

The second problem is that the infections are concentrated in certain parts of the country, particularly the most populous island of Java.

“In the Jakarta region it already reaches 90% of the bed capacity,” he said on Wednesday.

Jan Gelfand of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said “action at lightning speed” is needed to give countries like Indonesia access to vaccines.

“Every day we see how this Delta variant brings Indonesia closer to the brink of a Covid-19 catastrophe,” said Gelfand, the head of the Indonesian delegation of the IFRC, in a press release.

No nationwide lockdown

The Indonesian health minister is reportedly pushing for stricter Covid measures in Indonesia, but told CNBC that authorities will not consider a nationwide lockdown.

“Definitely not, because … the cluster is only in a certain area,” he said. “Kalimantan doesn’t have that. Sulawesi doesn’t. Most of Sumatra doesn’t and (and) Bali is still under control.”

Indonesia’s tourism minister told Reuters this week that the country, Bali, a popular holiday destination, plans to reopen in late July or early August, but needs to “watch out for the recent surge” in cases.

Health Minister Budi said in Sumatra and Kalimantan only 30 to 40 percent of hospital beds were occupied. “It’s not evenly distributed.”

A Covid-19 patient in the complex of the Wisma Atlet Covid-19 Emergency Hospital.

Risa Krisadhi | SOPA pictures | LightRakete | Getty Images

He also said Indonesia could increase oxygen production if necessary, adding that the country has diverted some of its industrial supplies to hospitals.

Distribution is a problem, however, as the factories are mostly located in West and East Java, while Central Java needs oxygen, he said.

Vaccination progress

Regarding vaccinations, Budi said the country has given 43 million vaccinations to around 28 million people. This corresponds to a little more than 10% of the approximately 276 million inhabitants of Indonesia.

He said the vaccination rate has remained constant at around 1 million doses per day this week.

“Our president asked me to go from 1 million doses a day to 2 million doses a day, which … can be done because we are now asking the entire private sector, all the police and the entire army to help,” said he.

Indonesia has received donations from China, Japan, Australia, the United States and Covax, a global alliance that aims to provide vaccines to poorer countries, Budi said. It also had agreements to buy vaccines from AstraZeneca and Pfizer, he said.

According to the World Health Organization, the new Covid cases reported in Indonesia between June 21 and 27 are up 60% from the previous week. 2,476 deaths were also recorded during this period.

As of June 29, Indonesia has confirmed 2.16 million coronavirus infections and 58,024 deaths, data from Johns Hopkins University showed.

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Health

Indonesia’s health-care employees scuffling with a ‘double burden’: NGO

Indonesia's health-care workers struggling with a 'double burden': NGO

A medical staff member checks on Covid-19 coronavirus patients at a hospital’s intensive care unit ward in Bogor on June 18, 2021, as Indonesia’s Covid-19 coronavirus infection rate soars.

Aditya Aji | AFP | Getty Images

Medical workers in Indonesia are grappling with the pressure of caring for Covid-19 patients while quickly vaccinating the country’s residents as infections increase, according to a global health and humanitarian relief organization.

“Health care workers in Indonesia are struggling with a double burden,” said Edhie Rahmat, executive director for Indonesia at Project HOPE, short for Health Opportunities for People Everywhere.

First, they have to take care of both Covid patients and patients with other diseases. Second, they are “under pressure to rapidly cover a high number of populations that need to be vaccinated,” he told CNBC in an email.

Total infections crossed the 2 million threshold on Monday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. More than 55,594 people have died of Covid-19 in Indonesia. Meanwhile, around 8.9% of Indonesia’s population has received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, and 4.6% of the country is fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data.

The longer the pandemic lasts and the higher the caseload builds, (it) will impact their workload and make them vulnerable to transmission and infection.

Edhie Rahmat

Executive director for Indonesia at Project HOPE

“The longer the pandemic lasts and the higher the caseload builds, will impact their workload and make them vulnerable to transmission and infection,” he said, noting that there are limited beds in intensive care units and a lack of good quality personal protective equipment in the country.

Nearly 980 health-care staff have died from Covid-19, according to data from LaporCovid-19.

Medical workers are also at risk of developing mental health problems such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, Rahmat said.

“Most health care workers in Indonesia do not have the experience to deal with long-term crisis situations like this,” Project HOPE’s emergency response specialist for Southeast Asia, Yogi Mahendra, said in a statement.

Increase in cases

Indonesia’s coronavirus cases have spiked in recent weeks following the Eid holiday in May.

“Most Indonesians, regardless of their religion, enjoy this gathering and celebrate with lots of food, handshaking and talking,” said Rahmat.

Authorities announced tighter restrictions in 29 infection hot spots this week, in a bid to contain the spread of the virus, Reuters reported.

In these so-called “red zones,” religious activities at places of worship have been suspended, while restaurants, cafes and malls can only operate at 25% capacity, Reuters said.

The country’s most populous island, Java, has been hit hardest by the second wave, Rahmat said.

He also noted that some vaccinated health-care workers have come down with Covid-19, pointing to a report from an official in the district of Kudus, who said 350 such cases have been detected.

“We also received a report of a midwife dying in the district next to Kudus and two doctors died in the same period in different districts,” he said.

Even if medical workers have mild symptoms, they need to be isolated for 10 days and cannot work in the hospitals at a time when cases are “rocketing,” he added.

“This is a serious issue and may ruin the health system,” said Rahmat.

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World News

How Gojek and Tokopedia teamed up in Indonesia’s largest merger

How Gojek and Tokopedia teamed up in Indonesia's biggest merger

Kevin Aluwi and William Tanuwijaya recently made Indonesian history.

As founding members of the GoTo Group, the 30-year-olds are responsible for creating Indonesia’s newest and most valuable tech company after merging their ride-hailing and e-commerce startups into the country’s largest business ever.

The combined company will contribute 2% to Indonesia’s GDP through its various business units, including a powerful super app, according to the company. And that is just the beginning.

“Hopefully one day we’ll add 5 to 10%,” Tanuwijaya, co-founder and CEO of Tokopedia, told CNBC Make It.

But maybe you have never heard of it. What exactly is GoTo and how did it get so big?

Founding of Indonesia’s largest technology company

GoTo Group is an Indonesian tech giant founded in May 2021 through a blockbuster merger between two of the country’s largest startups: Gojek and Tokopedia.

Tokopedia was founded one year apart in the capital Jakarta and started as an e-commerce marketplace in 2009 to connect small traders with buyers, while Gojek was launched in 2010 as a ride-hailing platform for motorcycle taxis.

Both companies were started by a group of friends in their twenties who were responding to an emerging wave of Internet connectivity that swept the country at the time.

Indonesian technology company GoTo offers on-demand, e-commerce and digital payment services.

Go to

“There was something of a tipping point where people began to see the potential of the internet, especially with the advent of mobile devices,” said Aluwi, Gojek’s co-founder and CEO.

In a sprawling country with the fourth largest population in the world and a rapidly growing middle class, the founders were on the trail. In the years that followed, both companies ventured into digital payments and other services.

Imagine that Amazon, DoorDash, Uber, PayPal, Stripe are combined with each other.

William Tanuwijaya

Co-Founder and CEO, Tokopedia

Tokopedia has doubled in size to add new market segments such as parents and small stallholders to its ecosystem. In the meantime, Gojek has expanded its ride-hailing platform regionally and expanded its local super app, which offers users on-demand services from food to massages and manicures.

In 2015, the two began working together, using Gojek drivers to deliver Tokopedia products on the same day outside of rush hour.

“We were the first in the world to form a partnership between an on-demand platform and an e-commerce platform,” said Aluwi.

A localized super app

Six years later, amid growing competition from regional and global tech companies, the two agreed to officially merge last month into an $ 18 billion deal – Indonesia’s largest deal to date.

“Imagine that Amazon, DoorDash, Uber, PayPal and Stripe are combined,” said Tanuwijaya. “There is a saying that if you want to go fast you go alone; if you want to go far, you go together. GoTo basically means going far, going together. “

The Indonesian technology company GoTo Group comprises three business lines, Gojek, GoTo Financial and Tokopedia.

CNBC

In the new structure, Andre Soelistyo from GoJek will take over as CEO of GoTo Group and GoTo Financial, Patrick Cao from Tokopedia will become President, while Aluwi and Tanuwijaya will remain CEOs of Gojek and Tokopedia, respectively.

The combined company has over 100 million monthly active users, more than 11 million dealers and over 2 million drivers in an ecosystem that accounts for 2% of Indonesia’s $ 1 trillion GDP, the company said.

GoTo hopes to use it to capture more of the market in Indonesia and beyond.

Seize the opportunity in Southeast Asia

According to a recent study, Indonesia’s digital economy is expected to be worth $ 124 billion by 2025 as the value of the broader Southeast Asian online market triples to more than $ 309 billion.

“Indonesia remains very exciting because of the population in Southeast Asia, the enormous economic growth forecasts for the next 10 years or so and (and) a really consumer-oriented economy,” said Florian Hoppe, partner at Bain & Company and co-author of the study.

This is both a huge business opportunity and an area where we truly believe we can make a big difference.

Kevin Aluwi

Co-founder and CEO, Gojek

However, to expand, companies must target the 120 million Indonesians who live outside of urban areas in the more than 17,000 island archipelago.

“Much of the early growth was driven by major urban centers, was driven by Java,” he said. “The next half will be the really interesting story. How do you get there? Establishing logistics services there, integrating them for payments, really integrating them into the digital economy. ”

Southeast Asia’s digital economy is expected to triple in value by 2025.

CNBC

For GoTo, this includes providing payments and financial services in a country where 47 million adults do not have access to popular financial services and products, and 92 million people have never used a bank.

“It’s these people, with or without a bank account, where illness or economic shock can really make the difference between belonging to the middle class and falling back into poverty,” said Aluwi. “So this is both a huge business opportunity and an area where we really believe we can make a big difference.”

Target of the IPO in 2021

To date, neither Gojek nor Tokopedia are profitable.

GoTo is said to be planning another round of funding ahead of a public listing, likely in Jakarta and the US. The company already has an impressive list of investors including Softbank, Alibaba, Tencent, Facebook, and Google.

“In terms of the timeframe, not just for going public but for all product development, my timeframe is always yesterday,” said Tanuwijaya. “But to be realistic for the team and so on, it’s as soon as possible. We hope we can try to get on the list hopefully by the end of this year.”

The potential is clearly there and I think international investors have recognized that.

Florian Hoppe

Partner, Bain & Company

In April, rival super app Grab completed a Nasdaq listing through the world’s largest “blank check merger” – a special-purpose acquisition company valued at nearly $ 40 billion. GoTo has a public market valuation target of $ 35 billion to $ 40 billion.

The GoTo and Grab IPOs will also serve as a litmus test for the region. If successful, it could pave the way for more tech startups as investor appetite grows.

“Historically, Southeast Asia has had a slightly more difficult time getting on the radar alongside China and India,” said Hoppe. “The last few years have shown that the digital economy is now at least competing with India. But the potential is clearly there and I think international investors have become aware of it.”

Prepare for global alignment

With the newly combined resources and thriving business in the new landscape, the company is now planning its expansion strategy, including an ambitious sustainability pledge.

“GoTo comes with a great responsibility,” said Tanuwijaya. “We’re trying to provide solutions to a problem we figured out a decade ago. But that solution will also create another problem: with millions of drivers, emissions, so many dealerships, packaging, and so on.”

GoTo is an Indonesian technology company that emerged in May 2021 from the merger of ridesharing giant Gojek and the e-commerce platform Tokopedia.

Go to

“That’s why we’re committed to truly zero waste and zero emissions by 2030 and become a company that can be a legacy for the next generation.”

The bold ambitions imply that the GoTo of 2030 could look very different than it is today. But as for the leaders, they’re just getting started.

“Our ambitions are without a doubt global,” said Aluwi. “We are not only active in Indonesia and we firmly believe that the future of our combined group is beyond one country.”

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Categories
Business

Indonesia’s Gojek needs all autos on its app to be electrical by 2030

Indonesia's Gojek wants all vehicles on its app to be electric by 2030

Indonesian ride hail app Gojek has announced plans to turn every car and motorcycle on its platform into an electric vehicle (EV) by 2030 in an ambitious tripartite sustainability strategy.

The company, dubbed the “Three Zeros” agenda, aims to achieve zero emissions, zero waste and no socio-economic barriers by the end of the decade, co-founder and co-CEO Kevin Aluwi told CNBC.

The 11-year-old company will invest in a number of EV pilot programs in Southeast Asia and introduce a “world’s first” in-app carbon offsetting feature. However, Aluwi said the plans would also require outside assistance.

“We will definitely use our money where our mouth is,” said Aluwi. “But it goes without saying that it is impossible for us to do this alone,” he continued, emphasizing the need for public and private collaboration to build the supporting infrastructure.

We will definitely put our money where our mouth is. But it goes without saying that it is impossible for us to drive this alone.

Kevin Aluwi

Co-founder and Co-CEO, Gojek

Gojek has already seen great interest from battery manufacturers, nickel suppliers and Indonesian authorities interested in supporting the transition to green energy in the world’s fourth largest country and the surrounding region, said Aluwi.

“Indonesia is one of the largest motorcycle haulage countries so there is a lot of interest from all types of parties and we see ourselves primarily as a facilitator to make this happen.”

The company also announced a number of social mobility initiatives, including the establishment of an employee-led council to advance corporate diversity, equality and inclusion programs and support the digitization of micro and small businesses. It also promised to only attend gender-specific panels for lecture events.

Aluwi said the plans would help Gojek remove some of the barriers to inclusivity that exist both within the company and in Indonesia as a whole.

“We’re very, very far from where we need to be if I can be brutally honest with ourselves. But I think our commitments are the first step in correcting that,” he said. “Indonesia is a very diverse and complex country when it comes to these issues.”

An Indonesian driver from the Gojek hail service and his passenger commute in Jakarta on March 5, 2021.

NurPhoto | Getty Images

The plans were announced on Friday in the company’s first sustainability report, which outlines the company’s environmental, social and government goals (ESG). The goals are to be announced and reviewed annually.

“It’s no longer about whether companies should report their sustainability impact,” said Allinettes Adigue, head of ASEAN at the Global Reporting Initiative, which benchmarks corporate and government ESG commitments, in the report’s press release .

“The issue now is whether the reports reported by companies are accurate, relevant and clearly communicate their economic, environmental and social impact,” he added.

The announcement follows news that Gojek will merge with Indonesian e-commerce company Tokopedia to form the multifunctional GoTo app.

An IPO is definitely an area, an activity, a milestone that we know is on the agenda at some point.

Kevin Aluwi

Co-founder and Co-CEO, Gojek

Under the combined company, the country’s two most valuable startups will reportedly aim for a valuation of up to $ 40 billion if they compete in the public markets against Southeast Asian hail giant Grab.

“An IPO is definitely an area, an activity, a milestone that we know will be on the agenda at some point,” said Aluwi, although it would not be limited in time.

Last month, SoftBank-Backed Grab announced that through a SPAC merger with Altimeter Growth Corp. will go public. The company is valued at $ 39.6 billion – the largest blank check merger to date.