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ndonesia wants to enhance and better manage its existing international assistance programs by setting up an agency called Indonesian Aid.

The country is allocating an intial budget of Rp 1 trillion (US$70 million) in the 2018 State Budget to support its diplomatic relations particularly, but not limited to countries in the South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC), a cooperation scheme between developing countries in the Asia, Africa and the South Pacific.

“The commitment to enhance South-South and other technical cooperations shall be gradually strengthened with the establishment of a single agency that is responsible for the delivery of Indonesia’s international assistance,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Retno LP Marsudi during her 2018 annual press statement in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The Rp 1 trillion assistance, she said, was set to be disbursed to at least 31 developing countries under the SSTC scheme, including to Palestine, to improve cooperation in various fields ranging from food security and fisheries to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro finance.

Nonetheless, the aid can also be allocated to other regions, including developed ones, under certain circumstances.

“The aid priority depends [on circumstances], which means that if there is a disaster or humanitarian crisis [in any country] we will help with the funds,” she said after the press statement.

She said the fund would be managed by an agency under the Foreign Ministry, which would consist of officials from other ministries, such as the Finance Ministry. However, the details of the establishment of the agency are currently being discussed, along with the procedures for the disbursement of assistance.

Although the assistance funds have been allocated in the state budget, there is as yet no legal umbrella governing the disbursement of them.

It is expected that the deliberation of the matter would be finished within the first three months of this year.

Retno also said that as a middle-income country, which as of the third quarter of 2017 booked a gross domestic product (GDP) of more than Rp 12 quadrillion, Indonesia has been involved in capacity-building cooperation programs with many countries, especially those in the Pacific region.

“However, currently the work [and funding] are scattered throughout separate ministries,” she said.

As a result, at times there are overlapping programs or the funds cannot be disbursed in a timely manner because of long procedures.

Hence, Indonesian Aid is expected to integrate the programs and ease the procedures, she said.

Separately, Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said the integration system was also meant to avoid any possibility of corruption.

Aside from Indonesian Aid, Retno said Indonesia’s foreign policy in 2018 would have eight other focuses.

One, she said, would be to strengthen ASEAN unity and centrality by supporting Singapore’s chairmanship. “Indonesia shall actively strive for ASEAN and China to produce a practical and effective CoC [code of conduct] for the sake of stability and security in the South China Sea.”

Indonesia is also supporting the ASEAN Secretariat by constructing a new building, the groundbreaking of which was conducted on Friday.

Another focus would be to enhance Indonesia’s peace and humanitarian diplomacy. “Indonesia shall enhance partnerships with like-minded countries, which will be a tangible contribution for world peace and prosperity,” said Retno.

Other focuses include hosting a number of important multilateral events such as the Asian Games and international conferences and intensifying the campaign to be selected as a non permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2019 to 2020 period.

Indonesia will also continue to safeguard its borders and sovereignty through the intensification of boundary delimitation negotiations, to strengthen the protection of Indonesians abroad, to intensify trade and economic cooperation negotiations in various forms and to strengthen the fight against transnational crimes, including human trafficking, illegal and unreported fishing, illegal drug smuggling and radicalism and terrorism.

Retno reiterated that Indonesia’s position on Palestine was very clear, firm and consistent, including on the status of Jerusalem. “Indonesia’s support for Palestine is not only in the form of political support, but also economic support and technical cooperation,” she said.

Retno also introduced the Treaty Room website to provide the public with online access to every international agreement that has been agreed upon since Indonesia’s independence.

Afterwards, Retno invited the guests to lunch at the new Kantin Diplomasi (Diplomatic Canteen).