Honorable Madame Chairperson,
Mr. President,
Excellencies Fellow Governors,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Government of Indonesia, let me once again congratulate Mr. Kanayo Nwanze who has been re-elected as the President of IFAD for the second term.

For many years,  the  Government of Indonesia  attaches the importance of good cooperation with IFAD, all Member States and other international agencies or organizations. Great efforts from the international community are necessary because sound national policies alone are not enough. Strengthened global partnership is needed. As a specialized leading agricultural development agency, IFAD is best positioned to join forces with others in the global efforts to deal with these issues.

As part of Indonesia’s commitment to address the issue of food security and poverty eradication, the President of Indonesia, together with President of Liberia and Prime Minister of the United Kingdoms, as co-chairs of the High-Level of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, have set up the ground work for ending absolute povery in a generation, the importance of food security, as well as the importance of sustainable growth with equity in  eradicating poverty.
 
Distinguished colleagues, other than expressing our appreciation and support for IFAD’s responsiveness to our agricultural and rural development priorities, I would also like to address some key issues and share some of Indonesia’s experiences regarding the promotion of south to south cooperation as well as private sector participation in poverty reduction.

As a middle income country, Indonesia supports the global initiative to promote the South-South Cooperation. One of our experiences in this initiative is the empowerment of smallholder farmers in rural areas.

In this context, Indonesia has a number of successfull projects funded by IFAD, such as the National Program for Community Empowerment (PNPM) and the Rural Empowerment and Agricultural Development Programme (READ). 

We also have innovative programs such as the program to increase live stock products through artificial insemination which have been shared with other countries. Based on this capacity, Indonesia is willing to share its experiences and expertise with other IFAD member countries.

Distinguished Colleagues, the second issue I would like to address is the role of the private sector in eempowering smallholder farmers. In harmony with the 36th topic of the meeting, which is “The power of partnerships: Forging Alliances for Sustainable Smallholder Agriculture”, Indonesia in collaboration with IFAD,  has developed a program by involving the private sector.

Under the Rural Empowerment and Agricultural Development Programme (READ) for Central Sulawesi, Indonesia has invited a company called MARS to provide a technical assistant for the development of cocoa products in the region. This is important since in recent years the production of cocoa in Central Sulawesi, as one of major cocoa producers in the country, has  been in a steady decline due to aging trees, poor soil conditions, pests and disease attacks, combined with out dated agricultural practices.
MARS is currently  working to reverse this trend and trying to reach the farmers under the READ Program in collaboration with the Government of Indonesia and IFAD.
Through  mutual collaboration such as this, both IFAD and its developing members can gain significant progress in its effort to fight poverty and promote smallholder farmers’ welfare.

Still in the context of private sector participation, I would like to share Indonesia’s experiences in developing oil palm industry with private sector participation. Under the scheme that government has developed, private companies have provided smallholder farmers with good quality seeds and fertilizers, followed suit by financing and training on how to plant and  grow oil palm trees. In return,  private companies will gain from the sale of palm oil to them by smallholder farmers. This is a good example of the involvement of private sector in supporting the smallholder farmers in Indonesia.
Through this  scheme, Indonesia has managed to become one of the largest producers of palm oil in the world, while at the same time, empowering smallholder farmers  to  help reduce ppoverty in rural areas.

Distinguished colleagues, in closing, I would like to reiterate that Indonesia has always supported and taken seriously,  the undertakings of IFAD. In this regard, Indonesia has committed by increasing its contribution by 100% in the period of Ninth Replenishment.In strengthening further collaboration and cooperation between the Indonesian Government and IFAD, , we welcome the establishment of an IFAD country office in Indonesia to enable IFAD become more focused in managing and developing programs and cooperation with Indonesia.

Let me conclude by wishing all of us a productive and fruitful session and successful years ahead.

Thank you.