Population control realm for international effort

JAKARTA (JP): Cooperation in population control will showcase the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)'s concept of cooperation between developing countries with the assistance of developed countries.

State Minister of Population Haryono Suyono told reporters yesterday that a meeting on population and development in Jakarta in August will formalize the so-called South-South cooperation in which industrialized countries of the North will be involved, mainly in funding.

"The meeting will be a manifestation of the idea to promote north-south partnership, which, over the last two years, has become an interesting issue," Haryono said.

"Under the guidance of President Soeharto as NAM chairman, the idea has been extended to donor countries ... and has received an enthusiastic response from them," he added.

The NAM countries attending include Indonesia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Mexico, Tunisia, Thailand, Korea, Colombia and Kenya or Nigeria. The United States, Australia, Japan and France will join to represent the North. Among the donor agencies are the UN Fund for Population Activities.

Haryono said other countries would be invited as observers to encourage more countries to join in the scheme in the future.

The Jakarta meeting will be a prelude to the UN conference on population and development in Cairo in September.

Haryono said the South-South and North-South scheme which will be struck in Jakarta will also be presented in Cairo.

He said the scheme in no way intends to replace the activities of the UN agencies on population problems.

On another matter, Haryono, who is Chairman of the National Family Planning Board, said the National Family Day on June 29 will focused on in Sidoarjo regency, East Java.

The regency was chosen because it has developed rapidly from what was once known as an under-developed region occupied by poor farmers into a modern society, he said.

Sidoarjo people no longer work in the agricultural sector as they have moved into the industrial sector.

"Some are lawyers...and their homes and environment, with very few exceptions, have changed into a city," Haryono said." (pwn)