Indonesia to Spend Rp 9t to Rebuild Quake Area

Rebuilding certain areas of Yogyakarta will most probably take a decade and even then the beauty of the areas will never be the same. Candika told me of the devastation and how with all the international help that progress is still slow in the outerlying areas of the city.

The government however is committed to restoring Yogyakarta to its former glory and plans to spend Rp 9 trillion rupiah to rebuild areas damaged by the May earthquake where more than 5,800 people died in the country's worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami according to a Business News report.

Half of the expenditure will be spent on rebuilding homes, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie told reporters in Jakarta the amount is less than the estimate of Rp 12 trillion for reconstruction that was provided by Vice President Jusuf Kalla on June 15.

The earthquake in Java, the most densely populated island in the world, damaged or destroyed 311,000 homes in an area south of Yogyakarta. The magnitude 5.9 earthquake on May 27 resulted in $3.1billion of damages, the government said.

Indonesia will get as much as $5.4 billion of loans and grants from overseas lenders to help cover a budget shortfall and pay for rebuilding after the quake, the government said last month. The lenders haven't decided the amount that will be given to rebuild the quake-hit area.