Japan's rice aid for RI

Japan's rice aid for RI

TOKYO (AP): Japan will extend 10.99 billion yen in emergency grant aid to help economically battered Indonesia import rice, Japanese officials said yesterday.

The Indonesian government will use the sum to import 500,000 tons of rice from Japan under lease contracts signed in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Akihiro Ishibashi, spokesman of the government's Food Agency, said the first shipments of rice will arrive in Indonesia in August.

Separately, Japan will provide about 100,000 tons of rice to Indonesia under a 1995 food aid program, the Food Agency said.

Hit by financial and political turmoil, Indonesia has also suffered big grain shortages in many provinces due to prolonged drought.