by Abu Hanifah
JAKARTA, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia has set plans to improve the development and reinforce its border areas by building up military bases in the areas, expected of ready to operate next year.
The plan to have military bases in key border areas originally came from President Joko Widodo who previously said that condition in border areas must be changed into maximum level within three years, Indonesia's Home Minister Thahjo Kumolo said.
"By 2017, border areas must be reinforced with military bases," the minister said in his remarks to inaugurate the new office of National Agency of Border Management (BNPP) here on Thursday.
According to the minister, government had initially allocated funds to finance the plan in the last two years. However the allocation continued to decrease as it was used to finance government's other priorities to develop infrastructure, health sector and many others.
"The allocation was 16 trillion rupiah (about 1.1 billion U.S. Dollars) last year. This year it deducted to 14 trillion rupiah (about 1 billion U.S. Dollars). It could be further decreased next year as government is still focusing on other priorities," Thahjo added.
Read the full story at Xinhua