Indonesia to
increase AIDS funding by nearly 300%

Indonesia will nearly quadruple the amount of money it spends on fighting AIDS over the next three years, with the major focus on its hardest-hit Papua province, the welfare minister said.

Indonesia has one of Asia's fastest growing HIV rates, with up to 290,000 infections in a population of 235 million people, fueled mainly by injecting drug users and prostitution.

Health authorities have warned that a failure to take prompt action in areas like Papua, where infections are 15 times the national average, could result in 1 million people infected with HIV within a few years.

Welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie said late Thursday the government would increase the amount of money budgeted for the AIDS fight from $67 million last year to $263 million by 2010.

The government also wants to reduce its dependency on international donors, which have contributed up to 70% of the national AIDS budget, he said.

The main focus of the new spending would be on Papua, which now receives only 4% of the money budgeted for AIDS. (AP)