GOVT HOPES TO OBTAIN SOFT LOAN FROM FRANCE

Jakarta, May 28 (ANTARA) - The government hopes to get a soft loan from France for the development and management of water resources in the country, a senior official said.

"So far the loan offered was too expensive as it was offered in the form of a protocol loan," Secretary general of the Public Works Ministry Agoes Widjanarko said after opening a seminar funded by the French government on here on Wednesday.

He said that the public works ministry now strictly restricted itself from obtaining funds from the protocol loans as it were too expensive, though it would not rule out the possibility of accepting an offer in the form of soft loans.

"I hope that with this seminar there would be a dialog between the governments of Indonesia and France and discussed funding schemes that would benefit the development of water resources," he said.

So far, the use of assistance of France was still in the form of education and training funding in the field of water resources.

He said that the main problem faced by Indonesia was how to develop water treatment plants (WTP) to maintain the quality of raw water from rivers for drinking which so far had cost a lot.