INDONESIA - INDONESIE

His Excellency General H. Soeharto, President of the Republic of Indonesia

First of all, allow me to express my highest appreciation to His Excellency the Director-General of FAO for his initiative to convene this important meeting.

The opportunity to be present and speak before this conference is indeed a great honour for me and the Indonesian people, particularly the farmers. Permit me, therefore, to avail myself of this opportunity to convey the warm greetings of the Indonesian people to all conference participants.

The twentieth century we are about to leave behind abounds in a number of achievements made by mankind in the scientific, technological, transportation and telecommunication fields. However, the century we shall soon leave behind has also been a period where many problems have arisen in the history of mankind. The fact shows that the legacy of the present century is far from creating happiness to the inhabitants of this planet earth.

Today, there are still an estimated 800 million of the world's population suffering from chronic malnutrition and more than 200 million of them are children under five years of age. Almost all of them are in the developing countries.

It is, therefore, our common task to contribute our ideas together about the question of food with a view to combatting hunger, poverty and malnutrition, as well as enhancing the food security of the international community.

Food security does not only involve the production sector, but it is also linked to other important aspects. This is clearly reflected in the world food situation today. World food production is actually sufficient to meet consumption needs. However, hundreds of millions of people are suffering from hunger and food shortages. We see the excessive, abundant food supply in the developed countries. On the contrary, food shortages and famine continue to be a prolonged predicament in developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia.

Well aware of such a food situation, Indonesia shares its experiences through South-South cooperation. For countries still unable to meet their food supply on their own, we have been carrying out apprenticeship and training programmes in the agricultural field. We are providing assistance in the cultivation technology of food crops, stock management and food distribution as well as other necessary skills to stimulate food production.

It was expected that this effort would raise food production in developing countries. Therefore, it would not only meet their own food demand but also enhance their respective national food securities and, in turn, would sustain food security on a global level.

Food security has become the focus of member nations of the Non-Aligned Movement. Through the Bali Declaration of 1994, the Movement has reaffirmed that food is the fundamental right of every human being. The Non-Aligned Countries opposed any effort to use food as a political and economic weapon to exert pressure on a country.

On the occasion of the current World Food Summit, I would like to make an appeal to governments and the international community to renew jointly our determination to ensure food security, so that mankind will be liberated from hunger and malnutrition. Through a cooperation based on partnership, we are firmly confident that we can resolve the food and agricultural problems afflicting countries all over the world, especially the developing ones.

Indonesia is keen on sharing its experience with other countries in its efforts to improve farmers' wellbeing and food security within the context of their national economic development.

Indonesia started to carry out development about three decades ago. Before starting with its development endeavour, Indonesia was suffering from abject poverty, an extremely high inflation rate and debilitating economy. Through careful planning and management, Indonesia had an average economic growth of 6.8 percent annually until 1993. In 1994, our economic growth reached 7.5 percent, and 8.1 percent in 1995. We have made these achievements due to, among other things, the high priority accorded to the agricultural and industrial sectors in our development.

More than ten years ago we became self-sufficient in rice, which is our main staple food. We have continued to maintain it today, although the demand for rice continues to increase. Indeed, rice remains the Indonesian people's main staple food. As a consequence, policies on food development still accord high priority to rice. However, we are also developing other foodstuffs as sources of carbohydrates. In addition, we are also developing stock-raising and fisheries as sources of protein and fat.

Since Indonesia's success in becoming self-sufficient in rice in 1984, the development of the agricultural sector continues to be directed at the effort to maintain it and consolidate other foodstuffs. This is the path we are following to constantly improve the farmer's wellbeing, with the purpose of reinforcing our national self-reliance and enhancing our food security.

We are aware that the effort to raise food production in Indonesia is facing the problem of the shifting utilization from agricultural to non-agricultural resources, especially in Java, as a result of the rapid growth of industrialization.

In order to replace the agricultural lands whose functions have been changed and to meet the continued rising demand for food, we have decided to open new agricultural lands of one million hectares in Kalimantan. In addition, we are also going to make the maximum use of uplands and other peat areas by applying the appropriate technology.

Our experience shows that the question of food security is closely linked to the people's poverty. In connection with the alleviation of people who are still living under the poverty line, Indonesia has drastically reduced the number of poor people.

Our experience teaches us that fertilizers are indispensable for increasing food production. At the start of our development, fertilizer production was 84 000 tons. Today we have increased our production by 88 times, reaching 7.4 million tons.

There are countries in the world today which have excessive natural gas resources, yet gas is the basic material for fertilizer. Today, there are developing countries, including Indonesia, which have the experience and ability to build their own fertilizer plants. The funding for the construction of the costly fertilizer plant may come from international financial institutions or other sources sought after by FAO. With such financial resources and with the expertise of building fertilizer plants by fellow developing countries and using inexpensive gas, we will then also get lower-priced fertilizer. The inexpensive fertilizer will greatly help developing countries in their struggle to raise food production. This is the concrete proposal I wanted to submit to this forum, the joint construction of fertilizer plants in our major struggle to overcome the global food problem.

To give the chance to developing countries to advance further, I should like to emphasize specifically the importance of unhindered exportation of agricultural commodities from developing to advanced industrial countries.

I would like to appeal to developed countries for the promotion of international trade policies to boost the progress of developing countries, particularly in the present globalization era. Thus, an international order and relationship that bring about equitable social justice for the whole world will be established.

In conclusion, let all Member States of FAO and other countries implement seriously the Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action, and all the agreements we have adopted during this Summit. Thus, we shall carry forward the message of the international community. May Almighty God bestow his divine blessings on all of us.