A novel way to reduce govt debt

A novel way to reduce govt debt

From Koran Tempo

Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dorojatun Kuntjoro hinted on SCTV on Tuesday evening that it would take a long time for Indonesia to emerge from the economic crisis.

In the dialog, he said Indonesia could not pay the huge debts in a relatively short time. Unless I am mistaken, Indonesia has as much as US$237.6 billion in offshore loans and Rp 650 trillion in domestic loans to pay, a striking amount indeed! But, what surprises us is that the government and our economists seem to have differences about how to settle the debts.

After watching the dialog, I suddenly remembered a method known and adopted by the Minang (West Sumatran) people, the Rp 1,000 drive to settle monetary problems.

To ease the government's and our future generation's burdens in paying the debts, perhaps we might as well adopt such a method.

If 200 million people in Indonesia are willing to give Rp 1000 to the country every month, there will be a considerable amount of money collected.

To make the program a success, the active participation of the print and mass media is absolutely necessary.

ULFAN RAHMAD, Bekasi, West Java