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Wolfowitz supports Indonesia

World Bank chief optimistic for nation if it can fight corruption

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JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz has pledged to help Indonesia's president rid the country of corruption in the government.

"They are very concerned with the issue," Wolfowitz said in an interview with CNN, after visiting with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"I think they've discovered, really built kind of a national consensus that (corruption) was a major factor in leading to the economic collapse here that took place in 1998, and that it's now, even though they've recovered from that setback and they're now growing at better than 5 percent a year, that it's now the real drag on their economy."

"It's the thing that most discourages investors, Indonesian investors as well as foreign investors, and there's a real national drive to work at cleaning it up. I came here, among other things, to say we're here to help, the World Bank group, in every way we can."

Wolfowitz is on the second leg of his Indonesian trip. He first came to the country 20 years ago as the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia.

Asked about changes in the country, he said, "I think what's really changed dramatically here now is, you have a democratic government. You have a free press. You have wide public discussion on the issue, and now you have a government that was elected in 2004 on a fundamental platform of reform."

Asked about Yudhoyono, Wolfowitz noted he became president through free and fair elections, the second successful one in Indonesia.

"I think the Indonesian voters have shown a lot of maturity in the way they've approached this remarkable opportunity to build a democracy, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world," he said. "I think President Yudhoyono has made it very clear that he's committed to building democratic institutions and he's committed to developing clean government here."

As part of his visit, Wolfowitz revisited the Aceh province, hard-hit by the South Asian tsunami more than a year ago. Although the progress might appear slow to some, he said when he visited just after the disaster, "the destruction was unbelievable ... to be fair, if you looked at that devastation, I think most people wouldn't even know where to begin.

"What I saw on the most recent visit is, housing construction has picked up. The local economy has picked up. Most people now ... have a real hope for the future and remarkable resilience," he said.

He also expressed optimism about a peace agreement in the wake of the tsunami that ended decades of civil war in Aceh.

"If it holds, and I'm hopeful it will hold, it will make it possible for Aceh, after this catastrophe, to build back better than it has been in decades."

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