Indonesia receives $250 million in grants for World Ocean Conference

The Jakarta Post 27 Feb 09;

Indonesia has received US$250 million in grants from various countries for the implementation of the World Ocean Conference which will be held in Manado, North Sulawesi, on May 11-15, 2009.

"Of the total, US$40 million is from the United States," Indroyono Soesilo, chairman of the WOC organizing committee, said in Jakarta on Thursday as quoted by state news agency Antara.

Six heads of state from member countries of the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) would participate in the CTI Summit to be organized on May 15, in parallel with WOC, he said.

CTI has six member countries, namely the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, and Solomon Island. Australia and the United States are observers of CTI.

He also said that US President Barack Obama had appreciated Indonesia's Coral Triangle Initiative.

North Sulawesi Governor Sandurajang said his province was ready to receive around 1,500 participants from 121 countries during the WOC 2009.

The province had constructed new eight star-rated hotels to accommodate the WOC participants, he said.

Marine experts would discuss efforts to save the marine ecology from the impacts of the global warming during the conference.