President Yudhoyono Promises to Meet MDGs On Time

New York (Antara) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he would work hard to meet three of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) that had not yet been achieved. "I will work hard until Indonesia achieves all of the) eight MDGs.I still have one and half years to complete it," the president said here on Friday. The government has not yet met three targets of the MDGs, namely the goals on maternal mortality, child mortality and clean water availability. According to him, the number of maternal mortality rate is higher than the child mortality rate. He said he had encouraged public servants in isolated places to become aware of this fact. Meanwhile, the government has allocated Rp1 trillion last year for the availability of clean water. "I was born in Pacitan, East Java. In the district, we should struggle to get clean water. So I knew about the difficulties to live in a place like that," he said. MDGs were declared by 189 members of the United Nations in 2000 and were scheduled to be completed in 2015. The declaration contained eight goals namely to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development. Secretary General of UN Ban Ki-moon has given a mandate to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Great Britain Prime Minister David Cameroon to co-chair a high level panel of eminent persons on post-2015 development agenda, to replace the MDGs. The panel has recommended a universal agenda to eradicate extreme poverty from the face of the earth by 2030 and deliver on the promise of sustainable development.(*) Reported by: GNC Aryani (T.A061/B/A. Prihantoro/A. Abdussalam)