Govt urged to stop foreign health aids

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