Jakarta – Indonesia is progressing on its gender development, but not fast enough, a minister said Monday.

Coordinating Public Welfare Minister Agung Laksono reminded a number of officials from various regions during a coordinating meeting in Bekasi of the country's low increase on the gender related development index and gender improvement.

The gender development index increased from 63.9 in 2004 to 66.38 in 2008, while the gender empowerment index increased from 59.7 to 62.27 during the same period.

"The number of illiterate women is larger than men (women's being 0.62 percent and men at 0.54 percent)... in the health field, the challenge that we must face is the high rate of maternal deaths during labor, which is 228 deaths per 100,000 births, this could be regarded as high for an ASEAN country," he said.

The Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar underlined the need for harmonization and synchronization of gender equity building between the central and regional governments. Activists have criticized the government, especially regional governments, for passing bylaws that are discriminative toward women.