Number of the poor reaches 13m

Number of the poor reaches 13m

MEDAN, North Sumatra: Of the 34.7 million people living under the poverty line due to the prolonged economic crisis, 13 million of those are classified as the poor and needy, Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsjah says.

"If the government does nothing to help them, they are feared to cause social problems, which will later endanger the whole nation," Bachtiar said in Medan, North Sumatra, on Sunday.

He said that the 13 million poor did not include about 2.5 million refugees temporarily being accommodated at refugee camps or with other families following a series of ethnic conflicts in a number of restive areas.

Poverty, according to Bachtiar, constituted a heavy burden on the government. This condition was increasingly becoming a problem in that on the one hand it needed immediate handling, while on the other the government had no funds, he said.

Despite the complicated problem, Bachtiar expressed confidence that the problems hitting the country would be able to be settled in stages. -- Antara