Government requests contraceptives on tick
JAKARTA (JP): The National Family Planning Board (BKKBN) has requested PT Schering Indonesia to advance 45 million sets of contraception pills worth Rp 50 billion (US$6.7 million) and defer payment until next week, company president Parulian Simanjuntak said on Saturday.
Simanjuntak said, however, he was confident the agency would pay its debt before then.
"We are sure that BKKBN will pay us in the near future," he told reporters on the sidelines of the company's one-day free clinic at its factory in Kramatjati, East Jakarta.
He said the company endorsed BKBBN's proposal for an advance supply of the pills because the agency had an inadequate stock to be distributed to government clinics nationwide.
Early this year, BKKBN asked the company to supply 45 million sets of contraception pills to meet the country's demand. BKKBN issued a promissory note stating the terms of payment.
Company director Sigfried J. Wagner told journalists that BKKBN would pay the debt after it received a loan from the World Bank.
"Our company will surely ask for the payment, we cannot give the pills for free," Wagner said.
PT Schering Indonesia, a subsidiary of Schering AG of Germany, has operated in Indonesia for 29 years. The company is known as one of the biggest suppliers of oral contraceptives and implants to BKKBN.
The company has upgraded its factory and operations in Kramatjati and is now worth US$10 million. It will be inaugurated next month.
With the factory renovated, the company is expected to produce 60 million sets of contraception pills each year. Fifty percent of the production will be exported to several countries in Asia.
"With our new equipment, PT Schering Indonesia can meet the international standard for exports," Wagner said.
He said Schering AG chose Indonesia as its production center in Asia due to its worldwide competitive labor cost.
On Saturday, the company held a one-day free clinic, which provided free contraception pills and a free implant contraceptive service, in the vicinity of its Kramatjati factory.
One of the recipients, Eka, said she came to the event to get more information about contraceptives.
"I have been in the family planning program for four years. But I've never been informed about the benefits and weaknesses of each method," she told The Jakarta Post.
Another recipient, Sumiati, said she now wanted to use implant contraceptives after using pills for six years.
"I just want to try a new method, the implant contraceptive. That's all," she said, when reporters asked her why she was changing methods.
Nurse Roosmina from Raden Saleh Clinic in Central Jakarta, however, suggested that every recipient should be aware of the negative effects of each method.
"As a nurse, I have always checked with my clients whether they know about the effects of contraceptives on the body," she said. (04)