I cannot promise you that some of this new debt will not be corrupted again as it has been in the past

Kwik Kwan Gie National Planning Agency

Indonesia itself admitted that this could be a tall order.

In a blunt message to donors, the head of the National Planning Agency and former chief economic minister, Kwik Kwan Gie, told them that some of their priorities in funding projects were "too often driven by creditors' needs and not Indonesian priorities".

But he admitted to embarrassment that the biggest country in Southeast Asia had to go begging for assistance, saying that the debt burden had "exceeded all limitations of sustainability and prudence".

"I cannot promise you that some of this new debt will not be corrupted again as it has been in the past," he said, referring especially to the decades-long rule of former President Suharto and the much more curtailed administration of Abdurrahman Wahid, forced out on allegations of failing to fight corruption.

Dealing with the deficit

The new money comes from the Consultative Group on Indonesia, a committee chaired by the World Bank and comprising most of Indonesia's major creditors.

It almost matches the $3.5bn the government of Megawati Sukarnoputri was hoping for, to help it deal with a projected $3.9bn budget deficit next year.

Of the money, $1.15bn comes from the World Bank itself. The largest single state donor is Japan with $700m.

But of the $3.14bn total, $1.3bn is explicitly tied to progress on economic reform. The move follows a warning from the World Bank on 7 November that Indonesia has just six months to prove it is serious about reform.

Similar worries dogged last year's donor round. A total of $4.8bn was promised, but in the end the unanswered concerns about the effective use of the money meant that only $2.6bn was ultimately delivered.