IFAD chief here for loan agreement
JAKARTA (JP): The president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Fawzi Hamad al-Sultan, arrived here yesterday for a five-day visit to sign a loan agreement and to discuss other assistance for Indonesian projects.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Finance, Agus Haryanto, said yesterday that IFAD's president is scheduled to sign an agreement on a loan for an Eastern Islands Small-holder Cashew Development Project with the Indonesian government today.
The project is expected to increase food production in the country's eastern islands of Flores, Lombok, Sumba, Sumbawa, West Timor and Yamdena.
According to a report of the IFAD representative office here, the project will need US$43.16 million to operate and the IFAD will grant $26 million of this.
Agus said al-Sultan would have meetings with Coordinating Minister for Economy and Finance Saleh Afiff, Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad, Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah and State Minister of National Development Planning/Chairman of the National Development Planning Board Ginandjar Kartasasmita.
The spokesman said al-Sultan, who is accompanied by IFAD's Asia Pacific division director Shiv Nath Saigal and the coordinator of IFAD projects in Indonesia Jeremy G.L. Wall, would also have meetings with representatives of the United Nations, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank during his Indonesian visit.
IFAD is one of the members of the Consultative Group for Indonesia (CGI), which is chaired by the World Bank. The group annually holds a meeting in Paris in the middle of the year to discuss new aid commitments for Indonesia.
Agus said al-Sultan and his entourage will also visit projects financed by IFAD, such as the Income Generating Project for Marginal Farmers and the Landless (P4K) in Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara and the Rainfed Agriculture Project (P2LK) in East Java.
Agus said IFAD has so far assisted the Indonesian government in financing seven agricultural projects since 1980. According to the fund's report, it has granted a total of US$150.93 million to the government for the seven projects with a total cost if $393.3 million.
IFAD, established in December 1977 with headquarters in Rome, currently has 157 countries as members, including 22 advanced countries, the 12 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and 123 poor countries. (02)