RI has secured $4.4b in foreign loans: Bambang

RI has secured $4.4b in foreign loans: Bambang

JAKARTA (JP): Finance Minister Bambang Subianto said on
Tuesday Indonesia had secured US$4.4 billion out of the $6.32
billion in overseas loans needed to plug the 1999/2000 state
budget deficit.

Bambang said the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank
have committed $1 billion each, while Japan has pledged an
equivalent of $2.4 billion through the so-called Miyazawa Plan.

"We will try to obtain the shortfall at the Consultative Group
on Indonesia (CGI) meeting in June," he told the House of
Representatives commission VIII on state budget and finance
during a debate on the draft state budget.

The 1999/2000 budget is expected to be approved by the House
on Feb.26.

Bambang expressed optimism that the CGI donor group would
provide the remaining $1.9 billion shortfall despite major
requests for aid from other crisis-hit nations.

"The creditors have so far indicated their commitment to
helping Indonesia quickly come out of the current crisis," he
said.

Bambang said that to win international support the government
would consistently service its foreign debts according to the
agreed schedules and would not seek another debt rescheduling
facility.

"If we ask for another debt renegotiation, the results of last
September's meeting will be invalid," he pointed out.

The government received the nod from the Paris Club government
creditors in September to reschedule some $4.51 billion in
principal payments on its debts due between August 6, 1998 and
March 31, 2000, to a period of between 11 and 20 years.

Bambang said that it was the maximum debt rescheduling the
country could have obtained.

Separately, the Coordinating Minister for Economy, Finance,
and Industry Ginandjar Kartasasmita said on Monday in Washington
that Indonesia was asking the International Monetary Fund for an
additional $1 billion to add to the $11.3 billion the fund had
already committed.

He told reporters after a meeting with IMF's managing director
Michel Camdessus that the release of the extra funding was a
condition for the disbursement of the $2.4 billion loan of the
Miyazawa Plan which was pledged by the Japanese government
earlier this month.

The $30 billion Miyazawa Plan is a bailout funding scheme
promised by Japan last year to help the crisis-hit Southeast
Asian nations.

Ginandjar said extra IMF funding and the earlier availability
of World Bank loans would provide added support to Indonesia
until the expected economic recovery in the second half of the
fiscal year beginning April 1.

Ginandjar added that the Camdessus was "very positive" in his
reaction to his request for extra funds from the IMF and that he
will now take the proposition to the IMF board for approval.

The IMF has already augmented its original $10-billion
contribution to the Indonesian rescue package by adding another
$1 billion and so far the Indonesian government has drawn down $9
billion of the total.

Indonesia needs a total of $10.32 billion in overseas loans to
help plug the 1999/2000 state budget deficit, comprising $6.32 in
program loans and $4 billion in project loans.

Bambang said that $4 billion in project loans had already been
secured as they are mostly part of the financing for ongoing
government projects.

He said that the project loans had been pledged by the World
Bank ($627.7 million), Germany ($302.36 million), Japan ($1.59
billion), and France ($82.5 million). (rei)