RI can wipe out poverty by year 2000: Soeharto
RI can wipe out poverty by year 2000: Soeharto
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto said over the weekend that by the beginning of the 21st century there will be no more Indonesians living below the poverty line.
Speaking with locals from the Manunggal village in Kutai regency, East Kalimantan, the President cited that 25.9 million Indonesians today live in poverty.
"The figure is expected to be reduced as we continue with our development programs," he said. He then added that strides were being made to ensure the success of the anti-poverty campaign under the current Five-Year Development Plan, which ends in 1999, or, at the latest, during the next one.
Soeharto was speaking with villagers engaged in development activities and members of the Family Welfare Movement, a woman's organization.
He added that 22,000 out of Indonesia's 65,000 villages are still regarded as having been left behind by development.
To help develop rural areas, the government has increased development subsidies from Rp 100,000 (US$49) per village to Rp 6 million ($2,900) each, as reported by Antara.
The President said that he was proud to hear that a local village called Bangun Rejo had been able to increase its rice production to 5.5 tons per hectare of paddy field. The previous production capacity was not reported.
Soeharto reported that rice production capacities were still improvable now that the Ministry of Agriculture has discovered a quick yielding paddy seed which is able to yield crops within four months instead of six.
At the occasion Soeharto also called on women to pay more attention to the welfare of children by protecting them from the negative influence of information filtering in from the outside world through modern communications systems.
Many Indonesian families have complained that their children are spending more and more time watching TV programs at the expense of their school duties.
The President suggested that the negative impact of foreign programming could also be neutralized by more religious education for children.
After the dialog Soeharto, accompanied by East Kalimantan Governor H.M. Ardans, visited a development exhibition.(tis)