DEFENSE MINISTRY TO PROPOSE LARGER BUDGET FOR ARMAMENTS' MAINTENANCE

Jakarta, May 26 (ANTARA) - Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said his office would propose increasing the annual budget for the maintenance of the National Defense Forces (TNI) main armaments from Rp600 billion to Rp700 billion.

"Increasing the budget for the maintenance and preservation of our military hardware is very important because each unit of the defense forces needs technical security to support its operations," the minister said.

The minister made the remarks after delivering a keynote speech at a seminar on non-military resilience and cooperation with Great Britain here on Tuesday.

He said the increased budget proposal for the maintenance and preservation of the TNI's arsenal would first be discussed in detail with the ministry of finance.

The agenda to be discussed with the finance ministry included all defense budget plans to adequately meet the TNI's needs in the future.

The minister said the important thing was that with an increased budget for the maintenance of the TNI's military hardware, the quality of TNI's arsenal, most of which was already 20 years old, could be improved.

In the 2009 budget year, the allocation for the defense sector totaled Rp32 trillion, or lower than the 2008 budget which reached Rp36 trillion.

Of the allocated budget, less than 10 percent was intended for military hardware maintenance and preservation.

"Ideally, the budget for the maintenance of the TNI's main arsenal should be 20 - 25 percent of the entire defense budget," the minister said.

Sudarsono said on Monday that what he was doing at present was improving efficiency in the use of the defense budget, including the budget for maintenance.

"The budget for main armament system maintenance at present is Rp600 billion, and we will try to raise it to Rp700 billion like in 2008, and, if possible, we will increase it to Rp1 trillion next year," Sudarsono said