Indonesia seeks to raise defense budget

Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Tuesday said that he sought to increase the country's defense budget in an effort to support facilities at the country's military.

Joko said that Indonesian government would raise the allocation for defense and security to at least 250 trillion rupiah (about 18.717 billion U.S. dollars), or 1.5 percent of the country's GDP, in three years.

The president added that the hike could be achieved if the country's economy, which is the largest in Southeast Asia, increased 6 percent.

"Going forward, professionalized armed forces must be boosted by the development of weaponry," Joko said at the State Palace.

Indonesia's economy picked up to 5.04 percent at the final quarter of last year from 4.79 percent at the previous three months ended September amid the country's massive efforts to boost investment climate.

Former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono previously said that Indonesia planned to step up its weaponry at the level which he called "the essential level," as the country had been long not to modernize weaponry.

However, President Jokowi insisted to use more domestically manufactured weaponry in part to boost the competitiveness of the country's weaponry industry.

Terrorism, transnational crime and insurgency are among the main challenges being faced by the Indonesian military. Endit