Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto took American billionaire Bill Gates to a local elementary school to show his signature free meal program on Wednesday.

The technocrat, who founded the Gates Foundation, is currently in Jakarta in hopes of expanding his organization's Southeast Asian footprint. The Gates Foundation has largely contributed to Indonesia's healthcare, particularly on vaccine production. As part of his visit, Prabowo took Gates to the SDN Jati 03 elementary school in Pulo Gadung.

Since the beginning of the year, the Prabowo government has been dishing out countless trays of free daily meals aimed at improving the children's nutritional intake. Dadan Hindayana, who leads the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), told reporters that Gates was impressed by the school-feeding program. 

"Mr. Bill Gates really appreciated and was impressed by what we have done. He also underlined the importance of nutritional intake, particularly for expectant mothers and toddlers," Dadan said.

Bill Gates did not make a direct comment on the site. However, the government claimed that the Gates Foundation would continue to back Indonesia's health programs.

"The Health Ministry will further discuss Bill Gates' support because the foundation's support mainly focuses on health programs. However, a nutritious meal is one of Gates' concerns," Dadan said.

Prabowo's free meal program aims to feed over 82.9 million people, including school students and expectant mothers, daily. Earlier that day, Gates had gone to Jakarta's Merdeka Palace for a meeting with Indonesian ministers and philanthropists. Prabowo at the time revealed that the Gates Foundation had provided Indonesia $159 million in grants since 2009. 

Add as a preferred source on Google +