Indonesia needs to work harder to reduce the numbers of women dying in child birth and to tackle the spread of HIV and Aids in order to meet United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, the government has said.
Vice minister for National Development Planning, Lukita Dinarsyah Tuwo, said the country is expected to reach most of the targets set out in the UN initiative by the target date of 2015, but it needs to improve in some areas.
The minister said some of the MDG indicators have been reached already and must be maintained, but he warned more work is needed to decrease maternal mortality, to control HIV/Aids and to spread any improvements made across the many islands making up the country.
He said: "We need to work harder to achieve target of decreasing maternal mortality of 102 per 100,000 births."
The minister also said the number of people with HIV or Aids has increased, especially among drug addicts and sexual workers, and the matter needs urgent attention. And he made clear that any progress needs to be rolled out across the whole country and regional disparity reduced.
He said: "We must compose a special strategy to reduce the disparity. We also need strategic steps that guarantee synergy among ministries and departments as well as central and local governments."
The eight UN millennium goals are to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to promote gender equality and empower women, to reduce child mortality rate, to improve maternal health, to combat HIV/Aids, malaria, and other diseases, to ensure environmental sustainability and to develop a global partnership for development.
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