SOEs Ministry Provides Support to Ensure Availability of Oxygen Supply Amid Pandemic

By : Nata Kesuma | Wednesday, July 07 2021 - 23:00 IWST

Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir (Photo by: PR of Cabinet Secretariat Documentation)

INDUSTRY.co.id - Following the recent spikes in COVID-19 cases, Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises has reneweditscommitment to ensure the availability of oxygen in hospitals.

“SOEs are moving fast on all fronts. This is mainly to help the availability of oxygen. Several state-owned companies have distributed oxygen to a number of regions inneed of it,” Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir said in a written press statement, Tuesday (06/07).

Strategic state-owned companies, the Minister said, such as Pertamina Group (natural gas distribution company PGN, steel company Krakatau Steel), Pupuk Indonesia Group (fertilizer manufacturers Petrokimia and PUSRI), and port operator Pelindo, are actively involved in providing logistics infrastructure.

In addition to allocating its infrastructure to facilitate the allocation and distribution of oxygen to needed locations, Pertamina Group through PGN has also provided assistance and oxygen. Meanwhile, Pupuk Indonesia Group has delivered a total of 96.73 tons of oxygen to hospitals in capital Jakarta, Central Java, and Yogyakarta.

“Krakatau Steel with its fairly large availability of oxygen for use in steel production process, now, they allocated the oxygen to support hospitals,” he said.

According to Erick, with facilities ranging from raw materials to distribution networks, the focus of SOEs is to help deal with the pandemic. He expressedoptimismthat the quick measures taken by state-owned companies will help meet the demands in the field in a prompt manner.

“Currently, the focus is on ensuring the availability of adequate oxygen for all hospitals and care facilities. Massive distribution will continue and God willing, this will ensure the resilience of oxygen supplies in hospitals,” he said.

Erick also expressed appreciation forthe swift measures taken by all parties in SOEs. He also requested that these services continue to be improved to support Indonesia to rise from the pandemic.