800m in Asia-Pacific poor
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto called yesterday for better cooperation among Asia-Pacific states in facing the bitter reality that 800 million of the world's estimated 1.3 billion poor live in this region, regarded as the most dynamic and fastest growing.
Speaking at the opening of the 27th Asia and Pacific conference on social welfare, Soeharto at the State Palace said that development would only succeed if people were fully involved in the development process.
"Despite the incredible scientific, technological and communication advances in the world today, there is still a large number of poor people," he noted.
He called for closer cooperation to eradicate poverty and help people free themselves from backwardness and misery.
"Nations in the Asia-Pacific region must cooperate closely, especially in the economic field, with a view to creating a strong and complementary partnership," he said.
The World Bank in its report revealed last week that Indonesia has succeeded in reducing the number of people living below the poverty line by 82 percent.
It claims China has reduced its poor by 63 percent.
Malaysia and Thailand are regarded the most successful in the region for reducing the number of poor by 95 percent and 90 percent respectively.
"Nine hundred million poor people are living in East Asia," says the report titled Everyone's Miracle?.
The World Bank states that 300 million poor people live in India, and severe poverty still exists in Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia and Vietnam.
"We know how bitter it is to live as a poor nation. For three- and-a-half centuries under colonialism, our nation was exploited, plundered and shackled," Soeharto remarked.
The President pointed out that Indonesia had significantly reduced the number of poor from 26 million in 1993 to 22 million in 1996.
"We hope by the year 2004 we will be able to help all people living in poverty rise above the poverty line," Soeharto said of Indonesia's own program.
The five day-conference was organized by the International Council of Social Welfare and attended by 330 participants, almost half of them from Indonesia. (prb)