Govt disburses $267m loans

JAKARTA (JP): The government has disbursed Rp 2.2 million (US$267 million) of farming loans in just one month, Minister of Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises Adi Sasono said on Sunday.

Speaking after officiating at the Cooperatives of the Glorious Mandate session, Adi said the government would disburse the complete Rp 8.2 trillion in farming loans by January 1999.

"This will drive up people's purchasing power enormously and create demand for goods and services offered by small industrial firms," he said.

In previous years, the government normally allocated some Rp 200 billion to Rp 400 billion for farming loans, less than half of which could be channeled to farmers.

Adi also called on farmers to use traditional, environmentally-friendly fertilizers to substitute modern fertilizers the prices of which had soared following the removal of fertilizers subsidy. (29)