Jakarta. Sweden announced Tuesday a grant worth approximately 9 million Swedish krona (around $940,000) to help Indonesia treat cancer by assisting a Jakarta-based hospital in setting up a radiotherapy center.

Swedish development finance institution SwedFund has just inked a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia’s Health Ministry and the state-run Dharmais Cancer Hospital in this regard. As part of the deal, the Swedish grant will go into funding a feasibility study for the development of a radiotherapy center at Dharmais. Radiotherapy uses radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. 

“Diseases will affect you, whatever the color of your passport. Pathogens or bacteria don't care whether you are Swedish or Indonesian. That’s why [both countries] have similar objectives when it comes to health, and that is how to save the people,” Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told the press shortly after the deal signing.

Swedish Healthcare Minister Acko Ankarberg Johansson said: “We are glad to collaborate on cancer [treatment] and so on. … We do share the same challenges. Perhaps at a smaller scale in Sweden, because our population only stands at around 10 million people.”

Kumala Chandra, a representative at Business Sweden, told reporters that the radiotherapy center would shorten the queue time for the cancer-infected patients at Dharmais. She revealed that patients at Dharmais “had to wait for months” to get treated. 

Breast, cervical, and lung cancer are some of the most common types of cancer in Indonesia, according to R Soeko W Nindito, the president director at Dharmais. 

"Sweden is famous for its technology in radiotherapy. So, we work together with them on how to carefully plan the development of the radiotherapy center. Sweden is also pretty experienced in eliminating cervical cancer,” Soeko said.

Talks will soon get underway for Sweden to help upgrade the Fatmawati Hospital to have treatment centered in a single location. Kumala said: “Currently, the treatment [at Fatmawati Hospital] is scattered across buildings, so it’s difficult to move patients from one place to another.”

Global Cancer Observatory data showed that Indonesia recorded over 408,661 new cancer cases in 2022. About 242,988 people also died from the disease, many of whom lost their lives to lung, liver, and breast cancer. Cervical cancer was also responsible for the deaths of many Indonesian women that year.