The Third Largest TBC Country, Indonesia Injects IDR 4.4 Trillion Loans by the World Bank

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The World Bank is said to have agreed to provide financial support of US$300 million or the equivalent of 4.4 trillion (state budget exchange rate of IDR 14,800) to Indonesia to overcome tuberculosis (TB).

World Bank Director for Indonesia Satu, Kahkonen, said the facility's health system in Indonesia was facing increasing challenges to find and treat TB cases, especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Even before the pandemic, Indonesia was the third largest contributor to the number of TB cases globally", he said in a written statement earlier this week.

Kahkonen explained, Indonesia contributed around 9 percent of the total 10.6 million new TB cases worldwide. He also revealed that Indonesia has an incidence of TB cases in more than 969,000 people and more than 150,000 people die every year due to this infectious disease.

“Indonesia has shown its commitment to eradicating TB and the World Bank is proud to support this struggle. Our financing will strengthen Indonesia's response to tuberculosis while paving the way for a stronger primary healthcare system, incorporating lessons learned from this program", he said.

Kahkonen added that this new financing was implemented in partnership with the Global Fund through an innovative results-based purchasing mechanism. Through this scheme, the Global Fund provides an amount of USD 20 million to reduce the Indonesian government's interest and principal payments.

"The Global Fund is an international partnership funded mainly by the governments of various countries to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria as epidemics", concluded Kahkonen.