Habibie concerned by malnutrition

JAKARTA: President B.J. Habibie expressed concern over the fact that more than eight million children less than five years of age were facing malnutrition.

"We could not imagine our future leaders would have poor nutrition or face malnutrition," Habibie said in Marga Mulya village, Mauk subdistrict, Tangerang, during the launch of a national movement to fight malnutrition.

If the problem is left unsolved, he said, these children will enter the country's workforce 20 years from now without any competitive benefits.

Citing a 1998 nationwide survey of the country's social and economic conditions, he said that some 33.3 percent of children under the age of five were facing the growing threat of malnutrition.

Habibie said that in the past 20 years, there were few cases of malnutrition in the country.

He said the problem only arose when the economic crisis hit in mid-1997, weakening people's purchasing power. (edt)