Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri has defended her government's economic performance, saying her administration had addressed the most urgent problems despite the bleak picture of the economy.
Megawati said the economic problems facing the country were complex and there were no quick-fixes.
"The difficulty in addressing it is due to the complexity of the problems, which have accumulated since the start of the crisis (the mid-1997 regional economic slump)," she told the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).
"There are indeed no shortcuts to (economic recovery), only measured and sustainable steps," the president in response to MPs' assessment of her state-of-the-nation speech on Thursday.
"As initial steps, during the past 100 days the cabinet has realistically addressed problems that required immediate solutions," she said.
She cited the signing on August 27th of a letter of intent with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the upcoming meeting of the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) as examples of her government's successes.
The signing of the letter of intent served as a prelude to resumption of a fivebillion-dollar loan program. The IMF board in Washington agreed last month to disburse 395 million dollars for Jakarta -- the latest tranche of the loan program.
It had been suspended since last December due to Jakarta's perceived reluctance to undertake fiscal reforms.
On Thursday Megawati said that there was no good news to report, with debtservicing repayments approaching dangerous levels, unemployment rising, investment dropping off. She also said that individual incomes were low and Indonesia was perceived as high-risk all-round.
Indonesia's foreign debt in August totalled 137.6 billion dollars, of which 54 percent was government debt. The sum is equivalent to a year's worth of gross domestic product.
The rupiah has fallen sharply in recent weeks against the dollar, touching 10,58010,600 on Friday. Annual inflation was 13.01 percent in September and millions are unemployed or underemployed.
The president on Saturday said the government was designing programs to alleviate poverty, empower small and medium enterprises. It has also set up a team to formulate a social security system.
"The government is assigning a team to draw up a national social security system which is comprehensive and integrated for all citizens," she said.
AFP