Ginandjar expects no poor people by the year 2004

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)