Hundreds of laptops and printers bought brand-new for the IMF-World Bank meetings held in Bali earlier this month will not go to waste.
The electronic equipment will be donated to educational institutions in Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, and Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia’s Ministry of Finance announced on Thursday.
The 500 computers, worth IDR8 billion and the 300 printers, worth IDR672 million, purchased using the 2018 State Budget, were only used during the meetings, held in Bali from Oct. 8 to 14.
The granting of the electronic equipment comes after presidential contender Prabowo Subianto complained about the IMF-World Bank meetings being a waste of money (and insensitive to natural disaster victims).
However, the meetings—which had been on the roster for three years—went on and Bali did get to see some long-term benefits with the completion of urban development projects like the widening of the airport aprons and the Ngurah Rai underpass.
Moreover, not as big of a kickback, but still beneficial, Bali will get 200 of the laptops and 125 printers, West Nusa Tenggara will get the same allocation, while Banyuwangi will get 100 laptops and 50 printers.
Bali schools were chosen as a ‘thank you’ to the province for hosting the meetings, while NTB and Banyuwangi were acknowledged as supporting areas and tourist destinations for the delegates.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Indonesia’s Finance Minister, has high hopes for the recipients of the computers.
“I wish that the 500 lapts will produce programmers, or those who will make comics about Bali or Indonesia, that can surpass comics from Japan,” Mulyani said, as quoted by Antara.
Head of the Bali Province Department of Education, Tjokorda Istri Agung (TIA) Kusuma Wardhani expressed similar thoughts, that the computers will support virtual classroom programs implemented in high schools and vocational schools on the island, where they had previously not be available.
“We will focus on districts or schools to help the poor who are concentrated in four districts, that are Bangli, Karangasem, Jembrana, and Buleleng,” TIA said.
Within Bali, it breaks down to Bangli getting 45 laptops and 21 printers, Buleleng getting 65 laptops and 45 printers, Jembrana getting 25 laptops and nine printers, and Karangasem receiving 65 laptops and 50 printers.
