Indonesia Wants World Bank to Help Overcome Poverty
Jakarta, 18 Rabiul Akhir 1438/17 January 2017 (MINA) – Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has asked the World Bank to give Indonesia advice on a more effective allocation of its national budget to reduce the country’s poverty rate.
“The government has allocated funds in the national budget for the countrys overall spending, and I want this to be effective,” Antara quoted the minister as saying while launching the World Bank’s Indonesia Economic Quarterly at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) auditorium on Tuesday.
She challenged the World Bank to provide useful ideas of how to better spend the countrys allocated funds to keep down Indonesias poverty rate to one digit of a percentage.
Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) from September 2016 has shown that 27.76 million people, 10.70 percent of the Indonesian population, live below the poverty line.
“I will challenge the World Bank to give us more than just economic reports. We should never stop asking just because we think that we already know the answers,” said Indrawati.
In a recent report, the World Bank stated that the allocation of budget funds in smarter and more efficient ways can maximize income from the collection of taxes and other state revenues.
The World Bank also recommended two steps to improve the quality of the national budget.
The first step is to allocate funds to priority sectors that reduce poverty and promote economic growth such as infrastructure, healthcare and social services. The second step is to allocate funds in ways will give maximum benefit to the recipients.
The World Bank stated that the Indonesian budget for 2017 includes several policies that are directed towards improving the quality of its public budget, but further reforms are still needed. T/RS05/RS01)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
