Bill Gates Arrives in Jakarta for the Launch of the Indonesia Health Fund
Today (Saturday 05/04), Bill Gates, co-founder and chairman of the Microsoft Corporation as well as the world's richest person (with a net worth of USD $76 billion according to Forbes), arrives in Jakarta for the launch of the Indonesia Health Fund. This fund, which is established through a cooperation between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Tahir Foundation, aims to combat diseases such as HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis, polio and malaria (both in Indonesia and outside Indonesia).
In Jakarta, Gates will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Dato Sri Tahir (chairman and CEO of the Mayapada Group, an Indonesia-based conglomerate) as well as eight other Indonesian businessmen who will each donate USD $5 million to the Indonesia Health Fund. Through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates will donate USD $40 million to the new fund.
Based on data from the World Health Organization (WHO), about 50 percent of the Indonesian population lives in malaria-endemic regions. Each year, approximately 30,000 people disease due to malaria in Indonesia (from an annual 30 million malaria cases across the country).
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