Ministry Of Finance Budgets IDR 8 Trillion To Support Soft Diplomacy With Other Countries

Ministry of Finance Building. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has budgeted IDR 8 trillion to support'soft diplomacy' with other countries through programs of the International Development Cooperation Fund (LDKPI).

One of these programs is the distribution of 1.5 million doses of Pentavalen Vaccine produced by PT Bio Farma to Nigeria. "This vaccine delivery to Nigeria is the first step in various programs through LDKPI from the results of the implementation fund which has been allocated Rp. 8 trillion to support diplomacy, especially soft diplomacy," said the Minister of Finance in the Release of Indonesia's Pentavine Vaccine Assistance for Nigeria in Tangerang, quoted from Antara, Monday, May 29.

Sri Mulyani said that every year she makes a special budget for LDKPI's endowment funds which will be realized into a diplomacy program by the LDPKI Supervisory Board, namely the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of State Secretariat, and the National Planning and Development Agency (Bappenas).

"Right now, countries in the world are increasingly fragile, so we don't just carry out diplomacy, the Foreign Minister has done a lot of mediation and various leadership roles," he added.

Currently, the budget through LDKPI is focused not only on Nigeria but also Afghanistan and Pakistan which are often hit by floods.

"This Pacific country has a lot of problems and the LDKPI program has become a diplomatic tool that we hope will be more effective, including building not only climate and grant, but also economic relations," he said.

In addition to Nigeria, through LDKPI, Indonesia will also distribute vaccines to Zimbabwe. With the current production of PT Bio Farma's vaccine, the Minister of Finance is optimistic that Indonesia will be able to provide assistance with 10 million doses of Polio Vaccine to other countries to strengthen diplomacy.