The World Bank has since 1967 financed 280 development programs worth more than US$25 billion in Indonesia, a Finance Ministry official said.

The World Bank had played a great role in supporting the development of infrastructure projects in Indonesia to spur economic growth and reduce poverty and unemployment, Secretary General of the Finance Ministry Mulia Nasution said at a workshop here on Wednesday.

In the first 20 years the World Bank loans were mostly used to finance the development of infrastructure facilities in the energy, industrial and agricultural sectors, he said.

“But since the 1998 financial crisis there has been a change in the pattern of World Bank loans for Indonesia with only US$460 million in loans channeled annually,” he said.

Since then, the government had used the World Bank loans to finance the health, educational, environmental, social development sectors, he said.

Besides the program loans, the world body also granted more than US$1 billion to finance post-tsunami reconstruction projects in Aceh and Nias, he said.

The grants were divided into 133 trust funds with the largest funds reaching US$650 million, he said.

“The largest grant the World Bank has ever extended to Indonesia came in the form of multi donor fund for reconstruction of Aceh and Nias,” he said.

Source : Antara