WB sets $1b for the poor

JAKARTA (JP): The World Bank will provide US$1 billion to launch an employment safety net for low-income people currently hit by the economic crisis, the bank's country director for Indonesia Dennis de Tray said yesterday.

De Tray said the bank's funding would be used to support two public works programs currency being developed by the National Development Planning Board.

"We hope to put in a very substantial amount of money of between US$300 million and $500 million in each," de Tray told journalists after addressing a luncheon hosted by the Indonesian- Australian Business Council.

He said the bank's funds would be used to underwrite the government's own investment. The government itself would therefore put its money into the programs.

"We try to help provide something like a safety net for the very poorest Indonesians in rural and urban areas currently hit by the crisis," he added.

He said the programs were basically small-scale rural and urban infrastructure projects, which were labor intensive.

"We are trying to redirect our resources for existing urban projects to underwrite simple labor intensive public works, like cleaning canals and so forth, to provide emergency employment for those people being laid off from construction projects." (rid)