Ginandjar expects no poor people by the year 2004
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is determined to see "absolute poverty" eradicated by the end of the seventh Five-Year Development Plan in 2004.
State Minister of National Development Planning/Chairman of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) Ginandjar Kartasasmita promised that there will be no more people living in absolute poverty by the target date. He made the remarks during yesterday's national symposium to commemorate International Poverty Eradication Day.
"By 2004, we hope to have alleviated absolute poverty, but not relative poverty, because the latter can never be totally mitigated," Ginandjar told the symposium, which was co-sponsored by Bappenas and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Experts have defined people living in absolute poverty as those who earn less than Rp 600 (US$0.25) per day in rural areas and Rp 900 in urban areas.
Ginandjar points out that anti-poverty campaigns are not new in Indonesia. He said that 20 percent of the population, or 26 million people, live below the poverty line.
"The government has succeeded in reducing the number of poor from 70 million in 1970 to 25.9 million in 1993," he said.
Ginandjar's account differs from official statistics which state that 13.6 percent of the population lived below the poverty line in 1993.
"Hopefully in 20 years we will be able to reduce the number of people living in abject poverty, especially in remote areas, from 20 percent to about 14 percent," Ginandjar said.
He said that by then foreign aid would also be reduced -- something which is the goal of most developing nations.
A US$1 million anti-poverty project in the provinces of Irian Jaya and Central Sulawesi was also launched yesterday, involving a cooperative effort between UNDP and the governments of Indonesia and New Zealand.
The UNDP helps by relaying its experience and aiding the design approaches of such programs.
UNDP said that armed with its multinational experience, it aims to work with governments to create strategies to break down the complex barriers restricting the poor's progress.
"The ultimate objective of the US$1 million project, which includes a $117,000 New Zealand contribution, is to build up the capacity of poor communities," UNDP said in a statement after the cooperation agreement was signed.
Ginandjar said that since the anti-poverty program was first launched in April 1994, some 2.8 million families, or 12.5 million people, have been helped.
Many have described poverty eradication program as an obsession of the government.
A UNDP official in Indonesia has lauded Indonesia for its success in reducing the number of people living below the poverty line, but described the remaining 26 million poor Indonesians as "the hard core poor" who will be more difficult to help.
Ginandjar has recently criticized the ineffective use of funds in poverty eradication programs.
"We're actually not too short of developmental funds...the available funds aren't being utilized the way they should," Ginandjar said.
The UN has stressed the importance of yesterday's events in wider efforts to alleviate international poverty.
"The observance of Poverty Eradication Day must be the occasion for a renewed, worldwide commitment to stem the rising tide of world poverty," said the UN's Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in a text written for the occasion. (14)