The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Wed, 06/01/2011
The Defense Ministry is planning to request Rp 80 trillion (US$8.5 billion) in its budget for 2012, a ministry official says.
Defense Ministry Defense Planning Director General Air Vice Marshall Bonggas S. Silaen said Wednesday that the government currently allocated 0.69 percent of the Gross Domestic Product to the nation's defenses.
He said the preparedness rate for the nation's weaponry was on average below 30 percent.
"If the budget could be increased to between 1.8 percent and 2.2 percent of the GDP, the preparedness could be improved between 80 and 90 percent," Bonggas said.
He said he hoped the projected defense budget for the coming two to three years would be above 1 percent of GDP and increase in phases within the next 10 year
( Now even a dummy like me knows it's good to be prepared just incase someone? starts a war,( we've had the konfrontasi with Malaysia, they definitely do not need all that to buy weapons to keep the Orang Maluku or the Papuans in check) I think that US$8.5 billion would have been much better allocated to alleviate poverty, or improve health services, but that is just me thinking h`e, siK.)
wo 1 jun 2011 - 7:52