Basic services within govt's reach: Minister
Basic services within govt's reach: Minister
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta
The government can improve basic services for its needy citizens,
if it manages to sensibly and effectively allocate the resources
at its disposal, a minister says.
State Minister/Head of the National Development Planning
Agency (Bappenas) Kwik Kian Gie said on Tuesday the government
would have to shift its priority from financing programs
beneficial to a small number of people to providing more
resources for social development that would affect more citizens.
"Currently, more than 20 percent of government spending is
allocated for subsidizing a small number of state-owned
enterprises," Kwik said during the launch of the 2004 Indonesia
Human Development Report here.
He said that the government should reduce such spending and
redirect the resources to the social sector.
In the global Human Development Report, Indonesia ranked 111
out of 177 countries surveyed, up from last year's position of
112 from a list of 175 countries (not down as earlier reported).
The country report was jointly commissioned by the Central
Statistics Agency, Bappenas and the United Nations Development
Program.
Kwik also said revenue from the privatization drive of state-
owned enterprises in recent years should also be invested in
providing citizens with access to food, health, education and
physical security.
The government should also seek more funds from taxes, which
currently account for only 12 percent of the country's gross
domestic product (GDP), to finance the investment in human
development, he said.
However, Kwik warned that the resources allocation would be
meaningless if the country failed to systematically stamp out
corruption.
"The quality of the government spending has at times been so
low due to widespread corruption," Kwik said.
The report said that Indonesia would need to spend over Rp 50
trillion (US$5.5 billion) more to provide key civil and economic
rights -- basic education, basic health, food and physical
security.
It said that for all the basic services, public expenditure
would only increase Indonesia's gross domestic product from 3
percent to 6 percent.
The report also highlighted the widening gap between the
country's regions. It reported that a large number of provinces
in the eastern part of the country were poorly developed as shown
by their human development index.
Jakarta was the province with the highest HDI in the country
with 75.6 points, compared to West Nusa Tenggara which was 30th
with a HDI index of 57.8 points.
UNDP resident representative Bo Asplund said in some
regencies, the administrations could not even meet the cost of
basic education while others received disproportionate support
from the central government.
"As Indonesia moves forward with its decentralization drive,
uneven development has resulted in some provinces doing well,
while others are lagging behind," he said.