President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono delivering the 2010 state budget proposal on Monday.
The president said the government would focus
on key policy areas, including social welfare,
employment, consumer-price stability and the private sector.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday presented the government’s 2010 state budget proposal, with social welfare and key domestic economic issues topping the list of priorities. Yudhoyono, who secured strong backing to serve a second five-year term in the presidential elections last month, said the government would focus on key policies. Topping the list are economic growth, support for the private sector, preventing layoffs, stablizing prices, maintaining consumer purchasing power, building social welfare networks and ensuring food and energy security. “Funds must not be misused or mismanaged,” he said. The draft budget aimed for overall domestic economic growth of 5 percent next year, compared with the 4 to 4.5 percent target in 2009. The government plans to allocate approximately Rp 61.3 trillion ($6.2 billion) to help the economy recover from the impact of the global economic slowdown. Fiscal stimulus spending will support developments in areas such as agriculture, infrastructure and energy. The stimulus package will also be used to support the government’s “fast-track” power generation program, which aims to make an additional 10,000 megawatts available. Some of these funds will be used to build transportation infrastructure, in addition to financing irrigation and clean-water initiatives. The government plans to direct Rp 37 trillion into social welfare and social security programs. Yudhoyono said the government planned to lower the poverty level to as low as 12 percent of the population from 14 to 15 percent currently. Education is another top priority, with Rp 51.8 trillion allocated, not including salaries and other educational costs. In total, funding for education will account for about 20 percent of the 2010 state budget. Funds have also been earmarked to provide insurance for the poor, to support the development of health facilities and to provide family planning services. About Rp 28 trillion will be used to support bureaucratic reforms and improve the quality of key public services. “The state budget is geared at improving the state apparatus and raising basic salaries and pensions for personnel by an average of 5 percent,” Yudhoyono said. The police and the Armed Forces will also receive larger living allowances. Subsidies are a major item in the budget, with Rp 144.4 trillion to be spent, accounting for 14.3 percent of the total budget. “We need these subsidies because the state is obliged to protect the lowest segments of society, especially in the face of the global economic crisis,” Yudhoyono said, adding that the government would work to allocate these subsidies more efficiently to prevent waste. The government is also planning to spend Rp 40.6 trillion on national defense, up 20 percent from 2009. Yudhoyono vowed to continue to gradually increase military expenditures throughout his upcoming term. He has said in the past that the ideal level for defense spending was about Rp 100 trillion to Rp 120 trillion. The draft budget proposal, traditionally presented on Aug. 16, the eve of Independence Day, was presented earlier this year because the House and the cabinet are due to end their five-year terms in September and October, respectively.
