40% of Riau residents in poverty

PEKANBARU, Riau: Rich in natural resources and home to the country's largest privately owned oil and gas company, 40 percent of Riau's three million residents live below the poverty line, Governor Saleh Djasit said.

"I am ashamed when people abroad say that Riau is so rich while in fact our wealth is hollow," said Saleh on Wednesday.

The province is one of Indonesia's major producers of forestry and agricultural products. It is also home to American-based PT Caltex Indonesia, which after state-owned PT Pertamina is the largest oil and gas company in Indonesia.

During the three decades of the Soeharto regime, much of the money generated by companies in the regions ended up in Jakarta's coffers.

The 1999 autonomy law aimed to rectify this by allotting a greater share of the money to the regions.

Saleh said his administration hoped to reduce poverty by boosting activity in the province's rural economy. To that end, he said, his office had increased its budget to Rp 100 billion (about US$11 million) from Rp 70 billion last year.

"We admit that the money we have disbursed has been insufficient, so we haven't as yet been able to meet the needs of the people," he said. -- Antara