House Supports Additional Budget For Foreign Affairs Ministry

Jakarta (Antara Bali) -- Chairman of Commission I of the House of Representatives Mahfudz Siddiq said that the commission approved additional budget worth Rp1 trillion for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to encourage the intensive implementation of economic diplomacy.

"It requires additional budget to improve economic diplomacy," Siddiq stated on the sidelines of the meeting between commission I and the ministry here on Tuesday.

According to Siddiq, when the ministry wants to promote Indonesia's economic potential, it must be supported by the budget.

"To strengthen the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, particularly with regard to economic diplomacy, it needs huge investment. However, there are no new policies in the areas of the budget," he remarked.

Therefore, Siddiq pointed out that President Joko Widodo should ask the Ministry of Finance to add the amount to the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"In principle, we support the hike in the budget of the Foreign Affairs Ministry," he affirmed.

He further noted that the ministry's budget for operational costs totaled Rp3 trillion.

The amount is used to operate 132 representatives of Indonesia abroad, including consular activities, protection of Indonesian citizens and political diplomacy.

Furthermore, Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno L.P. Marsudi stated that she did not discuss the matter of additional budget in detail with Commission I of the House of Representatives.

"During the discussion, the House of Representatives supported the Foreign Affairs Ministry's request for additional budget, but we did not discuss numbers," she revealed.

Earlier, Marsudi had declared four foreign policies as priorities for Indonesia, with intensifying economic diplomacy abroad being one of them. (WDY)