WFP to close down its Indonesian office

JAKARTA (JP): The World Food Program will close down its country office here next month on the grounds that Indonesia is wealthy enough to provide food for its 195 million people.

William Affif, the program officer in charge, said yesterday the closure is part of the world body's move to focus its activities on low-income countries and on emergency operations.

"The office will be closed by the end of May. However, should a very serious condition arise, Indonesia is still eligible for emergency assistance," Affif told The Jakarta Post.

The United Nations considers Indonesia as a newly industrialized country which has succeeded in reducing the absolute poverty experienced by about 60 percent of the population in 1960 to 14 percent in 1994.

It notes that between 1960 and 1993, Indonesians' life expectancy rose from 41 to 63 years and its infant mortality rate decreased from 139 to 58 per 1,000 births.

Affif said with income per capita reaching more than US$900, Indonesia will soon obtain the status of a middle class country by the year 2000.

The World Food Program of the Food Aid Organization has been assisting Indonesia since the program's inception in 1963, when it helped victims of the eruption of Bali's Agung Mount in the same year.

Other activities include assisting Indonesia with economic and agricultural projects, such as providing foodstuffs for participants of the state-sponsored transmigration program during the first months of the resettlement.

Statistics at the World Food Program show that over its 32- year presence in Indonesia, it has assisted in 58 projects with a total grant of US$210 million.

From 1963 through 1994, according to the figures, the program had donated about 2,000 tons of foodstuffs valued at US$2.3 million.

It was also involved in the provision of food to thousands of Indochinese refugees on the Galang Island in eastern Sumatra between 1989 and 1995.

Affif said that although Indonesia -- which was self-reliant in rice production in 1984 -- still has poverty enclaves in areas like East Nusa Tenggara and Irian Jaya, it is able to cope with its food problem.

Indonesia, he said, is now in the position of contributing to the World Food Program's efforts within impoverished countries found in Africa or other countries riddled by civil strife and religious and racial hatred.

"Indonesia can turn itself from a recipient to a donor," he said. Jakarta has made contributions in-kind, as well as providing 50 percent of the local operation costs, he added.

For similar reasons, the program will also close down its country offices in other places such as the Philippines and in countries within South America.

The UN Economic and Social Council accepted Indonesia as a full member of the Committee on Food Aid policies and Programs in 1993. (pan)