Govt urged to stop foreign health aids

House of Representative's Commission VII on population and welfare urged Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi to stop receiving foreign health loans which it said did not benefit the nation.

"The ministry must accept only foreign aids in the forms of grant and donations which are not binding because such loans have burdened the people and benefitted the donor countries because a bigger part of the loans are used to purchase their products and pay their experts," Laope Moekoe, a member of the commission, said in a hearing with the minister here over the weekend.

Sujudi admitted that it was possible that 80 percent of money gained under the soft-loan scheme returned to the donor countries.

"The recipient country must use the loan for local medical workers' training in the donor countries and the purchasing of medical equipment and expert for consultation services from the donor countries," he said.

The ministry's budget for health development this year is Rp 3.53 trillion, of which around Rp 2.4 trillion from national budget while some Rp 1.13 trillion from foreign debt.

The World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan, South Korea, West Germany, and Australia have been financial sources of multilateral and bilateral loans for the ministry. -- JP