Tony Hotland, Jakarta – The government is seeking to create jobs for 15 million people over the next three years as part of an expanded poverty alleviation campaign.

Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie said Thursday the administration would prioritize two programs to reach that goal: people empowerment and biofuel.

Speaking after a Cabinet meeting in the president's office, Aburizal said the people empowerment program had actually been running since 1998 in 34,200 villages across the country.

The program is expected to generate jobs for 12.5 million people, assuming each project will absorb 250 people in a specific area for three years, said Aburizal.

"The projects work, but we need to extend them to 50,000 more villages by 2009," he said. "The types of projects are determined based on local conditions." The remaining 2.5 million jobs are expected to come as the government opens plantations to support its biofuel program.

Critics have called the anti-poverty projects ineffective, pointing to the steady rise in the number of poor people over the past few years. But Aburizal said that without the programs, poverty would have been even worse.

"We hope that the coordination between the relevant Cabinet ministers can go better. We have agreed that 20 percent of the total state budget allocated for poverty alleviation will go to these two programs," he said.

The government has increased next year's poverty alleviation budget to Rp 51 trillion (US$5.6 billion), from Rp 43 trillion in 2006 and Rp 21 trillion in 2004. The plans will be drawn up by Aburizal and the money will be managed by other relevant ministries.

The projects, said Aburizal, could come in many forms, such as constructing roads, bridges and irrigation facilities.

"The government will also provide capital for small-scale businesses, allocating Rp 100 million for each village, diversifying the projects so that we can reach more villages," he said.