Jakarta – The State Budget for the Indonesian National Military Forces (TNI) has been increased by 15 per cent from 11.536 trillion rupiah in 2003 to 13.266 trillion this year.
Chief of the Armed Forces Information Centre, Sjafrie Sjamsuddin, stated in a press release that the increase in TNI's routine budget would be allocated to improve soldiers welfare.
Besides that, there is also development funding prioritized for operational units and Primary Defence Equipment (Alutsista). Procurement of new defence equipment is an attempt to modernize TNI's equipment.
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono emphasized the budget priorities during a special coordinating meeting on maritime defence held at the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) office on Tuesday (27 January). Yudhoyono acknowledged the increased budget was to strengthen the national defence system.
According to Sjamsuddin, the budget for TNI is the second largest after the budget for education.
The inter-institution coordination meeting on security and political Affairs also agreed on revitalizing the Maritime Security Coordination Body (Bakorkamla) to handle poaching of the country's marine resources which so far had cost the country more than 90 trillion rupiah.
State Minister for National Development Planning/Head of the National Development Planning Board Kwik Kian Gie said that the allocation of 13 Trillion rupiah was actually still insufficient. However, there was no other option considering the government's limited budget.
Kwik agreed that the increased budget for the military was still not enough for the country to build a strong national defence system. Sharing Kwik's opinion, Navy Commander Adm Bernard Kent Sondakh said that the additional war ships were still far from making an ideal fleet.
The Navy Chief revealed that currently some 16 Parchim class corvettes were serviceable had been totally unserviceable. In addition, the navy had ordered patrol boats from PT PAL Indonesia state-owned shipyard.