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REMARKS BY
H.E. DR. SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO AT THE LAUNCHING OF THE GLOBAL BUSINESS PLAN FOR MDGS 4 & 5
I am so proud to be here today among great pioneers whom I know have a permanent place in heaven due to their wonderful deeds and compassion for others. Of all the things in the world that would affect the future course of the human race, I would pick two as the most fundamentally critical. First, is climate change, which is forcing us to change the way we live, think, work, plan and play for generations to come. And secondly, is the Millennium Development Goals, which coincidently also contain the objective of sustainable development in Goal Number 8. I particularly value the MDGs for several reasons. They contain objectives which every country can identify with, no matter what economic system or ideology they embrace. These objectives are not imposed by one country, but they are aspirational goals which result from a global consensus. And best of all, these objectives provide clear targets which are to be achieved with a clear timeline, which is 2015, which means that most of us will actually live to see its fruits during our life time. This is an important point because in most cases achieving these goals is a matter of will, strategy and resources allocation. It is said, for example, that achieving universal primary education by 2015 would only cost USD$ 10 billion per year, which is less than what Americans spend on ice cream per year. And making child-birth safer for mothers would cost USD$ 12 billion per year, which is equal to what Americans and Europeans spend on perfume each year. And remember that we were able to eradicate small pox several years ago with a cost of only US$ 17 billion, which was very cheap compared to the lives that were saved by it. Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Reducing the infant and under-five mortality rate as well as maternal mortality is top priority in Indonesia's health development programme. Through an integrated and comprehensive programme called "Healthy Indonesia 2010", we are providing a social safety net and improving the people's access to primary health services, including obstetrics and nutrition care. We are also revitalizing our community-based health service centers (Posyandu). We have a Making Pregnancy Safer campaign and a Mother Care movement that are going strong. We have launched a health insurance and an income-generating program for poor and near poor families, which touch the lives of some 76,4 million Indonesians. To achieve MDG goals 4 and 5, we have increased our budget for the health sector by 300 %, in the past 3 years. We are hopeful to reach MDG targets, including Goals number 4 and 5, before 2015. In the past 3 years, our national budget for poverty reduction program grew three-fold as we speed-up efforts to fight poverty and improve quality of life, especially in education and health. The problem is many developing countries have the will and certainly the compassion but not necessarily the economic resources. And this is why this Global Business Plan for MDGs 4 and 5 is a major breakthrough because it helps fill the gap where they are needed most in developing countries, and more importantly it involves the active participation of corporate leaders as part of their corporate social responsibility, as well as social activists. I welcome this trend and I hope that it will only
continue to get stronger. I wish to commend President Bill Clinton
for his leadership and for his innovative approach. We in Indonesia
are particularly indebted to President Clinton in his valuable role,
along with President George Bush, as the United Nations Special Envoy
for Tsunami Recovery. So keep on doing what you do best, keep on achieving,
keep moving forward, and I Once again I congratulate you, and thank you.
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