RI TO RAISE ITS CONTRIBUTION TO ADB BY RP2 TRILLION

Denpasar, May 3 (ANTARA) - Indonesia will raise its contribution to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) by Rp2 trillion in stages for four years, a minister said.

"If the contribution makes investment better, in my opinion, we must do that," Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Sunday.

But she added that it must be realized that Indonesia also needed huge funds to develop its infrastructure facilities, including school buildings, and public health service centers (puskesmas).

"That is the significant development issue. But this does not mean that we must carry out development by taking the rights of other countries which are poorer than us," she said.

According to her, although Indonesia belonged to a group of countries with medium per capita income it still had poor people.

Noting that many countries were poorer than Indonesia, she said African countries had a per capita income of only US$350, while Indonesia had a per capita income of around US$3,000.

"Indonesia will be considered arrogant if it takes resources from other countries," he said.

Earlier, the minister said if Indonesia wanted to maintain its shareholding in the ADB which plans to increase its capital three-fold it must increase its equity in the Manila-based bank.

Indonesia is currently the ADB's sixth biggest shareholder, holding 5.43 percent of the bank's shares.

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