Indonesia ranks 105th in HDI index

Indonesia ranks 105th in HDI index

JAKARTA (JP): The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
revealed on Monday that Indonesia was ranked 105th in its Human
Development Report 1999, nine notches lower than last year's
report.

The report however said that "new data and methodology make
direct comparisons between this year's and last year's rankings
meaningless".

The report said its Human Development Index (HDI) ranked 174
countries in terms of life expectancy, education and income. For
the sixth consecutive year, Canada took the top spot.

Norway, the United States, Japan and Belgium trailed Canada.
This year, Sierra Leone sat on the last rung, while Burundi,
Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Niger completed the bottom five, the
report said.

The report said this year's HDI was based on improved life
expectancy data from the United Nations Population Division,
revised adult literacy data and combined gross primary, secondary
and tertiary enrollment ratios from the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The report said data on purchasing power parities had been
updated by the World Bank, following more comprehensive surveys
undertaken by the International Comparison Programme.

"The improvements in the methodology and data affect the HDI
ranks of almost all countries.

"Thus if a country ranks lower or higher on the HDI this year
compared with last year, that does not necessarily mean that its
state of human development has deteriorated or improved," the
report said.

It added that "moreover, the HDI rank of a country also
depends on the performance of other countries".

UNDP said this year's report focused on the positive and
negative aspects of globalization.

"While many millions of people are being further marginalized
by their lack of access to new technologies, including the
Internet, growing inequalities are not inevitable."

The report recommended, among other things, stronger social
policies and actions to buffer the effects of "bust and boom"
economies.

It urged policy-makers "to balance their concern for profits
with concern for people disenfranchised by the turmoil of the
global marketplace".

"As long as globalization is dominated by economic aspects and
by the spread of markets, it will put a squeeze on human
development," Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, director of the Human
Development Report Office, was quoted as saying in the report.

"We need a new approach to governance, one that preserves the
advantages offered by global markets and competition while
allowing for human, community and environmental resources that
will ensure globalization works for people, not just for
profits."

The report said a fifth of the world's people living in the
highest income countries held 86 percent of the world gross
domestic product, 82 percent of world export markets, 68 percent
of foreign direct investments and 74 percent of all telephone
lines.

The last five countries ranked in the report recorded about
one percent in each of the categories.(byg)