MANILA ~ The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to lend Indonesia US$400 million to expand its health and education services for the poor, the Manila-based lender said this week. The loan is intended to help Indonesia achieve its Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targets, set up by the United Nations in such areas as poverty reduction, health, education and gender equity, the ADB said in a statement. “The primary beneficiaries of ADB’s support will be women and children from poor households who currently lack sufficient access to quality education and health services,” ADB senior economist Alfredo Perdiguero said. The loan will help more children survive their infancy, save more people from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, help more women remain healthy during pregnancy and help more children go to school, the ADB said. “Despite the overall progress Indonesia is making in many areas, significant disparities still exist between the country’s most affluent and poorest families on a number of MDG targets, such as infant mortality rates.”