Tycoons pledge to help reduce poverty
JAKARTA (JP): Conglomerate owners, represented by Liem Sioe Liong, Bambang Trihatmodjo and Sudwikatmono, signed an agreement with the government yesterday to help reduce poverty under the Prosperous Family Savings Program.
The government was represented by State Minister of Population Haryono Suyono at yesterday's signing, which took place at the Bina Graha presidential office in the presence of President Soeharto.
The signing ceremony was also attended by Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Aburizal Bakrie and businessmen Eka Tjipta Widjaja, William Soeryajaya and Sofjan Wanandi.
Yesterday's agreement was a follow-up to a meeting of almost 100 business tycoons in Bali in August, which issued the "Bali Declaration" with a commitment to help the poor and small businesses.
Under yesterday's agreement, the business tycoons agreed to support the government's poverty alleviation program by assisting families which live below the poverty line, particularly those living outside the impoverished villages which have been identified by the government.
Currently, 22,000 out of Indonesia's 65,000 villages are still regarded as least-developed or "impoverished," making them eligible for an annual development subsidy of Rp 20 million (US$8,900) each.
The poverty line is drawn on the basis of a minimum daily calorie intake of 2,100 and a certain quantity of non-food consumer goods and services.
Based on prices in 1993, the poverty line for urban areas is set at a monthly expenditure of Rp 27,905 and Rp 18,244 for rural areas.
Soeharto said that currently about 26 million people, or 13.7 percent of the total population, still live in poverty.
Of the 26 million poor, he said, 13.8 million live in least- developed or impoverished villages and the remaining 12.2 million live outside those villages.
Under the Prosperous Family Savings Program, the businessmen pledged to match every deposit of Rp 2,000 with Rp 20,000 of funds for each of the 2.5 million families which are to be covered by the program.
The program will allow a family to save money in state-owned Bank Tabungan Negara or in local post offices. In return, they will be able to withdraw funds or tap the resources of the conglomerate owners for education and technical assistance.
Soeharto acknowledged that helping the country's poor people was not an easy task.
"But you have to do it if you don't want to be stared at cynically," he told the businessmen.
President Soeharto also urged big businesses to share part of the business pie with their smaller counterparts through partnerships, saying that selfishness on the part of large-scale entrepreneurs could easily lead to social envy.
"Partnerships (between big and small businesses) should be voluntary and non-destructive. Big entrepreneurs shouldn't use the philosophy of aji mumpung in doing business with small entrepreneurs," he said, using a Javanese expression which condemns a person who takes advantage of a position of power.
The aji mumpung philosophy, Soeharto added, was against the country's Pancasila ideology.
"If necessary, big businesses in control of downstream industries should hand over part of their business lines to smaller enterprises," he said in his address, in which he did not use a prepared text.
Soeharto told the businessmen that they would foster social envy if they continued to expand their enterprises without involving small businesses.
"The big ones should give room to the smaller ones to develop and grow," he said.
Soeharto said that even in the 18-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the developed countries were willing to help their developing counterparts.
"If the APEC forum can do it, surely our country, which is based on Pancasila, can do it even better," he said. (pwn)