A national webinar entitled “Our Shared Responsibility – Ending Epidemics: Smoking and COVID-19 in Indonesia” was held on 16 March 2021. The event brought together 804 participants, including representatives from national and subnational governments, civil society, NGOs, academia, media, and other stakeholders.
Under the leadership of the Minister of Health and Vice Minister, the Ministry of Health outlined several key strategies:
- Revising Regulation PP 109/2012 to strengthen tobacco control measures.
- Increasing pictorial health warnings on tobacco products from the current 40% to 90%.
- Supporting a higher tobacco tax.
- Organizing a national consultation on smoking cessation services.
- Expanding public education through social media.
- Promoting the involvement of multi-stakeholders to accelerate Smokefree Areas (SFA) at the regional level.
High-level representatives from the Ministry of National Development Planning, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture, as well as the Mayor of Bogor City and the Head of ADINKES, were also present.
The meeting concluded with six agreed action points. Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive, and the event generated 25 media articles.