The Jakarta Commitment

Last Monday, 12 January, 22 international financial institutions and donor countries signed The Jakarta Commitment which allows Indonesia to regulate and take the lead on all projects funded by foreign creditors.

According to Kompas, the signing of this commitment will prevent duplication of projects and will optimize debts provided by the 22 Creditors: Asian Development Bank (ADB), French Development Agency (AFD), Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA), Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), New Zealand Agency for International Development(NZAID), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Great Britain's Department of International Development (DfID), the World Bank, the United Nations Organization, the governments of the Australia, Australia, Canada, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherland, Norway, Poland and Sweden.
Indonesian owes the creditors US$ 55.77 billion in debt, consisting of US$ 33.42 billion Bilateral Debt and US$ 18.35 Multilateral Debt. This year, our government plan to get US$ 5.5 billion of Stand by Loan to be used if the government failed to sell half of the State Bonds it plans to issue totaling Rp 99.7 billion.
The most important aspect of the Jakarta Commitment is that it provide possibility for our government to use credits according to our national interest and priority, thereby the Creditors should make its credit plan based on our domestic budget and procurement of goods & services.

Now that we have to opportunity to fully decide what to so with the foreign debt, let us hope that we will be more careful and its usage would wholly be for the benefit of the Indonesian people.