APRN discusses debt, poverty alleviation

APRN discusses debt, poverty alleviation

JAKARTA (JP): At least 120 delegates of 80 organizations from
22 countries are taking part in the second annual meeting of the
Asian Pacific Research Network (APRN), which opened here on
Monday.

The organizing committee said APRN, a network of some 23
active non-governmental organizations from 11 countries in the
Asia Pacific, discussed several issues, including debt and
poverty alleviation in the meeting.

The three-day conference was jointly organized by the
International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), the
Indonesian Consortium for Nature and Forest Conservation
(Konphalindo) and the Ibon Foundation of the Philippines.

Ibon research director Antonio Tujan Jr. said the results of
the conference would be hammered out in the organization's
leadership meeting on Thursday.

In his keynote speech, Rizal Ramli, the chief of the State
Logistics Agency (Bulog), said one way of alleviating poverty in
Indonesia was by extending credit to the poorer population,
especially in the rural areas of Java.

He asserted that extending credit to people in rural areas was
less risky than extending credit to big corporations.

Rizal said that a credit and savings scheme started in the
early 1980s in which rural villagers could borrow money based on
their credit history rather than collateral proved to be
successful.

"They could borrow, for example, Rp 50,000 or Rp 100,000 in
the beginning. If they were able to return the money on time, the
amount of their next loan would be increased," he said.

Rizal said the scheme was better than subsidized credit which
had the potential to be misused and mismanaged.

Binny Buchori of INFID said alleviating poverty in developing
countries would not be possible unless foreign debts were at
least partly canceled.

Binny, who is INFID executive secretary, said Indonesia's
development policy, while aimed at fighting poverty, had instead
resulted in the burden of more than $140 billion in debt, of
which some $60 billion was private debt.

The health and education budget is reduced each year to pay
interest on the debts, she said.

"How can we provide better basic needs such as health,
educational facilities and affordable food when most of the
national budget is used to pay principal and interest?" Binny
asked in a speech opening a conference on poverty and development
financing here.

Debt cancellations have been rendered impossible under the
belief that Indonesia, along with many other countries falling in
the category of middle-income countries, were rich enough to pay,
she said.

"Time and time again we hear that 'in no way can your country
get debt cancellation because you are rich'," Binny said. (10)