Jakarta, March 19 -- National Development Planning Minister Rachmat Pambudy stated that the free nutritious meals program has the potential to increase the aggregate demand.

"Nutritious meals (program) has only been running for 3 months, and even in that short period of time, it has given hope. At least there is aggregate demand in areas where the program has been implemented," Rachmat stated during a working meeting with Commission XI of the Indonesian House of Representatives in Jakarta on Tuesday (March 18).

He illustrated that the free meals program incurs a daily cost of only around Rp50 million per day to feed three thousand children. This translates to a potential additional economic turnover of around Rp1.5 billion.

This progra...