President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono meeting with George Soros at the Presidential Office in Jakarta on Monday. Soros was in Indonesia in his role as a member of a UN advisory group that aims to mobilize funding promised at last year’s Copenhagen climate change talks. (AFP Photo/Bay Ismoyo)
UN climate adviser George Soros has endorsed Indonesia's proposal to establish a special local agency responsible for managing international aid the country needs to tackle climate change.
Indonesia's Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan after accompanying President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a meeting with Soros at the presidential office on Monday that the agency would be headed by Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, currently chief of the Presidential Unit for Development Monitoring and Control.
"We've had this idea of forming a special agency here, headed by Pak Kuntoro, who will manage international funds flowing into the country," Zulkifli said.
"The agency will manage domestic and international funds and conduct monitoring, reporting and verification -- MRV activities of agreed projects.
"Yes, he (Soros) agrees with the proposal. We hope we can immediately set up the agency," he added.
In a press conference after the one-hour meeting with Yudhoyono, George did not mention the agency. He only said the UN Secretary General's High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing, in which he is a member, was raising international funds to support Indonesia's efforts to cope with climate change.
"Clearly by protecting the forests and particularly the peat areas, Indonesia has to bear some opportunity costs and doing it benefits the entire world," Soros said.
"Therefore there is a very strong case for providing international supports both in the form of loans but more importantly in the form of grants."
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