JAKARTA, 20 July 2007 - Indonesia is to increase the amount of money it spends on fighting AIDS by as much as 400 percent over the next few years. The major focus will be in the hardest-hit province of Papua, according to the welfare minister. Indonesia has one of Asia's fastest growing rates of HIV, with up to 290,000 infections on a total population of 235 million. Most of these cases are related to injecting drug users and prostitution.

Health authorities have warned that a failure to take direct action in areas like Papua - where the rate of infection is 15 times the national average - could result in 1 million people infected with HIV in a few years time. Aburizal Bakrie, welfare minister, said that the government would increase the amount of money budgeted for the fight against AIDS from 48 million euro to 190 million euro in 2010.

The government also plans to reduce it's dependency on international donors which have contributed up to 70 percent of the national budget for AIDS, he said. The main focus for the newly available money would be in Papua, which now only received four percent of the budgeted funds even though it is the hardest-hit area in the country, Bakrie told reporters shortly after a cabinet meeting.

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