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With Indonesia’s population believed to be growing at an alarming rate, Aburizal Bakrie, the Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare, appealed on Thursday for local governments to help boost family planning programs across the country.

He made the statement during the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the National Coordinating Agency for Family Planning, or BKKBN, and the Indonesian Armed Forces, or TNI, which has agreed to help distribute contraceptives provided by the agency to some of the country’s more remote areas.

“Indonesia’s population growth rate has been a cause for concern,” Aburizal said. “Without efforts to curb the population growth and regulate population distribution, in 10 to 15 years the rate could be out of control.”

Family planning needed the support of all elements of society, including local governments, Aburizal said, adding that without their cooperation, the program would fail to meet its goals.

The BKKBN has estimated that the country’s population, which currently stands at 222 million, could reach 260 million in 2015.

A separate projection by the Central Bureau of Statistics puts the 2015 population at 247.5 million, and 273 million by 2025.

Aburizal said local administrations were not engaged in addressing the issue.

“Local governments are not investing enough of their human resources and financial capabilities in the family planning program,” Aburizal said.

Parents should also consider the welfare of their families when they think about having more children, he said, adding that overpopulation could “burden the country.”

Aburizal said the family planning program would not be able to solve the population problem on its own — the government should also work to regulate population distribution.

“We have to take into account the capacity of each of the country’s regions to support a certain population level,” he said. “Take Java, for example. The island is already facing problems in supporting population growth, so we need to consider the population distribution as well.”

Sugiri Syarief, the head of the BKKBN, said the agency was hoping for better cooperation from its 33 provincial branches.

He said that the wide operational network of the TNI would help the agency reach people in rural areas that have not benefited from its contraceptive-distribution program.

The BKKBN hopes to distribute contraceptives to at least 6.6 million people in 2009, he said.