By: Rahmat Effendi)*
Indonesia has successfully held the First G20 Sherpa meeting even though it is still during the pandemic. Hopefully this success is expected to increase international trust in Indonesia’s leadership at the international level.
Indonesia feels very honored to be appointed as the G20 presidency, so that the event is held in this country. The G20 Forum opened with a sherpa meeting, on 7 to 8 December 2021. Sherpa is taken from the guiding term in Nepal, which describes how the G20 Sherpas paved the way to the G20 summit.
The first meeting of the G20 Sherpa was attended by the Minister of Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto, Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi, and many representatives from other countries who were participating in the G20. The event was held in Jakarta and because of the pandemic period, it was held in a hybrid way, aka a combination of online and offline.
The G20 Forum was indeed held in a hybrid manner to comply with health protocols. In addition, all participants are required to wear a mask. Participants from representatives of other countries are also required to have been vaccinated twice, show an accurate PCR test, download the Peduli Protect application, maintain distance, and fulfill other points in the health protocol.
Indonesia successfully held the G20 Sherpa as the opening of the G20 Summit because after this event there were no reports of any participants or committee affected by Corona. Strict health procedures and protocols were successfully carried out, and indeed all representatives of other countries also complied with the rules. Including quarantine before attending the sherpa meeting, so they come well before December 7, 2021.
In the G20 Sherpa meeting, the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto invited the world to recover together, especially in the economic sector. This is in accordance with the theme of the G20 this time, namely ‘recover together, recover stronger’. Recovery is carried out together and there is collaboration to make it happen quickly.
Why must there be a recover together which results in collaboration between G20 participating countries? The reason is because the Covid-19 pandemic is happening globally, so there must be good cooperation to overcome it. The impact of the pandemic is so devastating, that not only poor and middle-class countries are affected, but also many developed countries are stuck.
If you want to recover from the impact of the pandemic, there must be good cooperation, starting with the G20 sherpa meeting, so that after the event there will be many mutually beneficial economic agreements. If we want to move forward, we must collaborate, not tackle each other, because the G20 participants have agreed to be united and always get along.
Minister Airlangga continued, the G20 presidency is an opportunity for Indonesia to show Indonesia’s leadership in the global arena, in order to answer various international challenges. Of course, the national interest is also the concern of the Indonesian government, namely an inclusive, resilient, and sustainable economic recovery.
To help economic recovery, the key is vaccination, because if at least 75% of the population has been vaccinated, herd immunity will be formed and we will be free from the pandemic period. After 9 months after the national vaccination program was launched, more than 40% of Indonesia’s population received 2 doses of vaccine, and hopefully next year the 100% target will be achieved.
The G20 Sherpa participants also understood the importance of vaccination and they also shared that in their country the majority received vaccinations. They also admired Indonesia for daring to hold this program and it was free of charge, even though they had experienced the impact of the pandemic in early 2020.
At the G20 sherpa meeting, which became a ‘warm-up’ before the G20 summit officially opened, many things were discussed, ranging from pandemic recovery, the economy, to vaccination. The event went smoothly and hopefully it will be followed smoothly at the upcoming G20 Summit.
)* The author is a contributor to Pertiwi Institute