Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A member of Commission I of the House of Representatives Fayakhun Andriadi said Indonesia`s defense system is still facing problems related to the provision of arms and the maintenance of arsenals.

"The problems exist due to the government`s limited budget and lack of political will to develop our own strategic industries," he said here on Friday.

In terms of budget, he said, there was a gap between the budget demanded for the weaponry system and the realization from the government.

"Sometimes the gap can reach up to 400 percent. For example, the Ministry of Defense in t 2008 and 2009 proposed to have a budget of Rp100.5 billion and Rp127.1 billion respectively. However, the central government could only approve Rp32.8 billion for 2008 and Rp33.6 billion for 2009. In 2010, the proposed budget was Rp158.1 billion but the realization was only Rp40.6 billion," he said.

Fayakhun expressed concern over the problem faced by the national weaponry system.

"Apart from strong power of diplomacy, a country must also have a strong defense system ," he said.
(A051/F001)

Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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