Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said coordination among ministries and between central and regional administrations was needed to settle the issue of food resilieance in Indonesia with regard to dealing with exploitation of natural resources.

"We have a room to settle the problem but the challenges are not easy to deal with. Geographically Indonesia can provide natural resources that are needed not only by us but also by global community. Coordination is needed," she said at Asia Pacific Food Forum here on Monday.

The coordination is needed not only among ministries concerned with providing food supplies such as the ministry of agriculture and the ministry of fisheries but also between central and regional administrations, she said.

Sri Mulyani said for a big country that applies a de-centralization system of government, coordination between central and regional givernments would be crucial.

"Strong coordination between central and regional governments would be very important," she said.

She said Indonesia is currently also being faced with food resilience issue that has now become a global problem, adding Indonesia is a big country with a big population which is now ranked 71st among 113 countries in the world food resilience index.

In settling the issue, Indonesia faced a challenge from its geographical condition which is a maritime country with more than 18,000 islands.

In view of that one of the strategic plans contained in the governments Nawa Cita development priority program is infrastructure development especially in outermost regions to spread development more evenly, she said.

Sri Mulyani emphasized the importance of human resources development as part of comprehensive economic development efforts. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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