December 21, 2003	Sunday	Shawwal 26, 1424

MANILA, Dec 20: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced on Saturday that it was extending two loans worth 188.6 million dollars to Indonesia.

The first package, of two loans totalling 100 million dollars, will go to improving primary health care in the Indonesian provinces of Bangka Belitung, Central and South Kalimantan, East and West Nusa Tenggara, Gorontalo, South Sulawesi and South Sumatra.

Another loan package, totalling $88.6 million, will go to upgrading housing in Indonesia’s urban areas, including slums and squatter settlements, the ADB said in a statement from its headquarters in the Philippines.

The project will also fund investments to provide links to citywide networks of urban services such as feeder roads while a portion of the ADB loan will be re-lent to central financial institutions to establish a housing financing system, for the poor.

About 40 per cent of Indonesia’s population of 212 million live in cities.

Conditions in many urban areas have continued to deteriorate, aggravated by the impact of the 1997 economic crisis, the ADB said, noting that only one third of the urban population has access to piped water. —AFP