Economists Indonesian President Prabovo are worrying about the feasibility of the subto’s program, which have been started to combat child nutrition this year.
The state of the Ministry of Health, an Indonesian Ministry of Health, is stunting due to malnutrition in 2022, the age of 21.6% of children, age 3 and 4.
The first phase of the free neutritous dining program spread through March, about 20 million Indonesian school children, pregnant women and breastfeeding is to provide maternal food to apply and prevent stunting for breastfeeding and prevent stunting.
The effort was estimated to cost $ 28 billion in five years. However, food coordinated minister Zulikifali Hasan said during a meeting on food security on 9 January that the budget of $ 4.4 billion will run in June for this year and will be requested to be more than $ 8.5 billion to find the program.
China, Japan, the United States and India have expressed support for the program, although it is not clear how much money will be provided or what form that form will take. Japan and India have said that their help will be in the form of training.
Officials have planned to implement the program in Stell, eventually reaching 83 million people – more than a quarter of Indonesia’s 280 million population – by 2029, Muhammad Kyudari, Deputy Chief of the President’s employees, to reporters on 3 February told.
The program is part of a long -term strategy for the development of the youth of the country to achieve the “Golden Indonesia” generation, referring to the plan to create Indonesia a sovereign, advanced and rich nation for its 2045 century.
The cost of the program can make Prabovo political weak, which according to Daini Paityo Rahraj, a senior policy advisor in International Relations Professor and Jakarta Consulting firm Synergy at Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta.
“To finance the program, Prabovo has taken a tacked step to implement a big cut in his government budget to see a 50% cut with some ministry in his government budget,” Dina said.
“Now he is forced to seek financial assistance from foreign sources.” He told VOA on 31 January.
The Finance Ministry said that the cost cut would be $ 18.7 billion, 8%of the approved expenditure of this financial year.
While other countries said that the National Nutrition Agency officials – who manages the program – said that internal interactions about the level of foreign aid, its implementation type of assistance and technical aspects not introduced the introduction of the level of foreign aid. Has happened
Support from China, Japan, America and India
In November, China committed to support free neutritus food, but did not pledge a specific amount.
The Chinese Embassy in Jakarta did not respond to VOA requests for more information about the value and form of aid. It is not clear that China’s financial assistance will be in the form of loan or grant.
The United States is providing training to Indonesian dairy farmers to support the program, increasing the demand for locally produced milk. According to Dairy Pro Indonesia CEO and US Dairy Export Council Training Project Leader CEO, Daddi Fuchuddin Kurnayavan, Indonesia, so far, can provide milk to school children only two to three times a week.
Deeddy told VOA on January 8 that Indonesia had to import 84% of its milk in the past, and the demand will double due to the food program.
In January, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced that Japan would support the food program by helping the Indonesian government to increase the ability to deal with childhood malnutrition.
ISIBA offered Japanese support by training Indonesian cooks and singing Japanese chefs for assistance. Prabovo said that Japan wants help in improving fisheries and agricultural fields based on Japan’s experience.
Recently, India confirmed the support for the program through the sharing of knowledge of India’s Food Corporation and Indonesian officials through knowledge of other institutions.
“India shares its experiences in the field of health and food security, including [free] Lunch plan and public [service] The distribution system to the Government of Indonesia, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on his YouTube channel on 25 January.
Other support and response
Other countries have said that they support the program. France and Brazil expressed their support on the occasion of the recent G20 Leaders Summit at Rio de Janeiro.
Prabovo directed his team to arrange an Indonesian delegation for Brazil to take notes from the same program as the South American country. France, which has a similar school feeding program, intends to share its expertise and help Indonesia to modernize its agricultural sector.
For the affiliated professor of international relations at Bandung’s Universitas Padajajaran, Tuku Rezasah said that India had increased the meat of 20000 metric tonnes of water in Indonesia last year, while Brazil had exported 100,000 metric tonnes of beef to Indonesia.
British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Renar showed a similar interest during his meeting with Prabovo in London in November. However, it is not clear what kind of support the UK will provide.
Mohammad Faisal, Executive Director of the Reform Center on Economics, told the VOA in Jakarta on 31 January that it would also be keeping in mind their interests of countries offering support.
“I believe there is no free lunch,” Faisal said. “Donation can be partly philanthropic, but not completely. Donor countries consider it as strengthening bilateral relations, but they can therefore expect to react to the future, enjoy the ease of investing in Indonesia through encouragement and export markets as a reward Can get better penetration. ,
Rezasah agreed.
He said, “Donor countries are expecting that Indonesia will import more products from its countries to support this multinational dollar supplements.” “On the other hand, they see Indonesia becoming a moderate power that can contribute to finding solutions to global affairs.”
