Jakarta. Germany has agreed to forgive Indonesia’s debt worth 75 million euros or around $78 million in return for the Southeast Asian country to invest in its public health programs for HIV and tuberculosis.

According to the Finance Ministry, the government recently inked a debt-to-health swap deal with the German state-owned development bank KfW and the international financing organization Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). In other words, the money initially earmarked for the debt repayment will go to improving Indonesian facilities for tuberculosis, HIV, and hepatitis treatment. A portion of the swabbed debt will also go into bolstering the overall healthcare system in the archipelagic country.

“This is a good example of how countries can work together by using innovative financing schemes to tackle global health challenges,” Suminto, a senior official at the Finance Ministry, was quoted as saying in a recent press statement.

A World Health Organization report shows that Indonesia accounts for 10 percent of the worldwide tuberculosis cases as of 2023. Indonesia is the second-largest contributor to the world’s tuberculosis cases, just behind India which makes up 26 percent of the global total.

State news agency Antara reported that Indonesia had set a target to halve the number of its nationwide TBC cases over the next five years. To this end, the government plans to ramp up screening. The Health Ministry recorded 35,415 new HIV cases so far this year as of September. The government also reported that the prevalence rate of hepatitis B liver infection stood at 2.4 percent as of last year.

This is not the first time for a country to swap Indonesia’s debts for other initiatives. Earlier this year, the US agreed to forgive Indonesia’s $35 million debt in exchange for the latter to conserve its coral reef ecosystem.

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