REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BOGOR -- The World Bank (WB) has agreed to grant US$400 million to deal with stunting in Indonesia, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said. Stunting has become a crucial issue that must be solved now, as Indonesia is ranked fourth in terms of stunting in the world, he revealed.

"They (the World Bank) are willing to grant $400 million. However, we ourselves will also allocate Rp46 trillion to deal with stunting, because this is a demographic bonus that the government must seriously handle," he stated, after attending a limited meeting at the Vice Presidential Office here, on Wednesday.

He added that stunting has drawn attention from the WB as it has an impact on the economy.

If a country has stunted human resources, it will result in low productivity, he noted.

"The human resources also have an impact on our gross domestic product (GDP) and productivity. So they are closely related to one another," he remarked.

The meeting was co-chaired by Vice President Jusuf Kalla and WB President Jim Yong Kim, and attended by Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Puan Maharani, Communication and Informatics Minister Rudiantara, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, and Chief of the Presidential Staff Moeldoko.

Kalla revealed that stunting in children must be prevented from now on, in order to avoid unproductive generations in the future. "If children who were born today are not provided good nutrition, our generations will become stunted in the next 20 or 30 years," he pointed out.

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