Soeharto to meet with conglomerates

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto will host 500 of the country's wealthiest individuals at the Bogor Presidential Palace today to personally thank them for their contributions to the government's poverty eradication campaign.

The meeting is not intended to ask for more contributions, State Minister of Population Haryono Suyono told reporters after meeting with the President at Merdeka Palace yesterday.

There is no plan to ask conglomerates to increase their contributions above the 2 percent of their after-income tax, Haryono said, apparently to allay concerns that the meeting would once again be turned into a request for more money.

Five hundred people who are listed as donors to the Self- Reliant Prosperity Fund have been invited to the meeting.

The Fund was established in January to aid the government's grand scheme of alleviating poverty. It works to manage funds collected through Presidential Decree No. 90/1995, which calls on companies and individuals with an after-tax income of Rp 100 million a year to contribute 2 percent of their earnings.

The contribution is then dispersed by giving poor families Rp 2,000 (87 U.S. cents) in the People's Prosperity Savings Program. The program allows them to borrow up to Rp 20,000 to launch a small business.

Borrowers are required to double their savings within four months to be entitled to a Rp 40,000 loan. The amount of loans allowed will increase in line with the multiplication of their savings.

The Fund has now accumulated about Rp 320 billion.

Haryono said yesterday that about 10 million families have received this initial loan from the Fund. "This a breakthrough because now, even poor people can have savings," he said.

He expressed his satisfaction with the program's progress, pointing to the continuously growing savings.

"So don't think poor people don't have money, because they do. It's just that previously, it was probably kept under a pillow or in some old can," Haryono said. (mds)