Renewed calls in Indonesia for increases in defence expenditure

Jakarta: A top-level official of the Indonesian ministry of defence has renewed calls to the country’s House of Representatives to increase the country’s defence budget, in order to meet the minimum essential forces (MEF) requirements of the defence forces (TNI).

"With a defence budget of Rp33 trillion ($3.6 billion), we will only be able to fulfil the MEF by 2029," Brig. Gen. Budiman, the defence ministry’s director for strategic policy said in a discussion on Thursday.

The defence ministry defines the MEF in military terms as "the number, scale and nature of operational readiness and force structure the country as a whole should set as a minimum."

According to Budiman, the Rp33 trillion budget is only 0.9 per cent of Indonesia''s gross domestic product. He pointed out that with the country''s economic growth pegged at around 5.7 per cent per year, the defence budget would be 1.95 per cent of the country''s GDP by 2029.

"If the House is willing to double the budget, the MEF can be achieved within the next 10 years."

It may be pointed out that Myanmar has the highest defence budget in terms of percentage of the GDP, at 8.2 per cent, followed by Brunei Darussalam at 5.8 per cent and Vietnam at 5.5 per cent.

Ranked below Indonesia are the Philippines, at 0.7 per cent of its GDP and Laos at 0.4 per cent, the lowest in the Southeast Asian region.

In terms of sheer spending power, Singapore has the highest defence budget, at $10 billion followed by Myanmar at $6.2 billion, while Indonesia sits at third place with $3.5 billion.

Of the total amount, Budiman pointed out that the largest proportion of the budget was spent on salaries, accounting for 60 per cent. While another 30 per cent was allotted for operations and maintenance, a meagre 10 per cent remained for the purchase of new weapons and military equipment.

According to Budiman, by 2029, Indonesia would only be able to provide $87 billion for weapons and military equipment. Of this amount, half would be allocated to the Navy, 30 per cent for Air Force and the rest for the Army.

"We need to accelerate the Navy''s development since Indonesia is a maritime country," Budiman said.

Currently, the Indonesian military has approximately 398,000 personnel, including the Army with 300,000 personnel, the Navy with 69,000 and the Air Force with 29,000.

"But we should not give up on this situation. What we should do now is to improve our defence industry."

A number of state-owned companies manufacture aircraft and other weapons for the TNI.

State-owned aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia manufactures the Spanish-designed NC-212 light transport aircraft, American Bell-412 helicopters, French NAS-332 Super Puma helicopters as well as co-produces the Spanish CN-235 medium transport airplane.

State-owned arms maker PT Pindad manufacturers SS-1 and SS-2 assault rifles based on a Belgian design.