Day: February 28, 2022

Development based on Village Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides a factual planning direction in accordance with the village condition, Minister of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration Abdul Halim Iskandar stated.

“Village SDGs had become the direction for village development that is easy to understand by the people,” the minister noted through a written statement on Monday.

According to Iskandar, development based on Village SDGs will continue to be sustainable and will be based on the village cultural roots.

“Village development has to be based on the village’s cultural roots,” he remarked while meeting with the village chief representatives in Bogor District on Sunday.

“This aligns with Village SDGs No. 18, specifically Dynamic Village Institution and Adaptive Village Culture, meaning that while the village institution develops fast, it should still stay true to the existing cultural roots,” he remarked.

Village SDGs-based development changes the perspective of development that is decided in a top-down manner into a bottom up inter-village cooperation.

During the meeting, he motivated the village chiefs to always believe in the capability and potential that villages have.

To this end, for the last year, the ministry, along with the minister, upheld the slogan “Believe in Village, Village Can”.

Iskandar also noted that village deliberation became the highest forum at the level of villages, thereby translating to the fact that the decision produced within the forum has the highest legality.

“The deliberation was created to be open for the public, so that other villagers can attend as participants to directly monitor the deliberation process,” he explained.

“This is what we strive to bolster, so that the deliberation can have a strong legitimacy,” he affirmed.

Source: Antara News

The Indonesian Pediatric Association (IDAI) has sent teams to evacuation shelters in West Pasaman, West Sumatra, to provide medical and psychological support to children affected by the recent earthquake.

The IDAI, together with the West Pasaman Children’s Forum, has invited children at the evacuation shelter located at the West Pasaman district head’s office to exercise, play, and sing together.

“For the West Pasaman earthquake, we are focusing on handling and providing services to children affected by the quake, both medical and non-medical,” deputy head of the West Sumatra IDAI, Dr. Asrawati, said here on Monday.

She informed that after the quake, the West Sumatra IDAI had dispatched teams to several affected locations such as Malampah, Pasaman district, Nagari Kajai, and the main evacuation shelter in the West Pasaman district head’s office.

“The teams have been deployed to provide treatment and handle children who have been affected by the earthquake as well as to survey the conditions at the evacuation shelters,” she said.

Especially for children, trauma healing must be carried out promptly because trauma can affect their behavior and growth in the long run, she stressed.

Asrawati said that creating a comfortable situation would impact children’s minds, help them sleep soundly, and hopefully influence their behavior.

A happy environment will also help release endorphins, and gradually, it is hoped that children will be able to forget the sadness caused by the disaster, she remarked.

“A fun atmosphere must be created in the evacuation shelters for the sake of trauma and psychological recovery of children,” she said.

According to reports from the deployed teams, the IDAI has found cases of children starting to develop conditions such as acute respiratory infection (ARI) and diarrhea, she informed.

In addition, children at the shelters are in need of clothes and nutritious food, she added.

Source: Antara News

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) play an important role as part of Indonesia’s economic backbone.

President Joko Widodo had earlier stated that MSMEs required to have greater access to business capital funding, to which end he aimed that by 2024, MSMEs should be able to get 30 percent of credit from the banking industry, wherein the credit section as of January 2022 was recorded to be at around 20 percent.

Easier access to capital is expected to encourage MSME actors and the younger generation to expand their business scope.

“MSMEs can become an important component to recover the economy and play a role in overcoming bottleneck supply chain problems due to high demand that have not been able to be fulfilled,” he stated.

He emphasized that MSMEs could become key players in economic recovery following the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A similar view was echoed by Minister of State Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir, who had earlier noted that the Indonesian economy is majorly supported by the informal sector.

“The Indonesian economy is mainly being supported by the informal sector. Hence, the role of MSMEs has become very important,” he affirmed.

On account of this important role played by MSMEs, the minister also highlighted the support given by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in ensuring that they are being sustained, one of which is through micro credit schemes.

He believes that it is important to keep SOEs close to the people’s endeavors through micro credits and efficient processes.

“This not only helps the people’s economy to recover amid the pandemic but also boosts the transaction volume. I have called on banks under the State-Owned Banks Association to welcome and assist MSME makers as if they are heroes, as they are indeed heroes to the nation’s economy,” he noted.

Digital transformation

The ministry’s aim to support MSMEs is not only being reflected by Thohir’s directives to the SOEs but also in his push for digital transformation for MSMEs.

He lauded the efforts made by BRI Bank in assisting MSMEs to adapt to the fast-paced digital ecosystem, saying that digital transformation adapted by SOEs should reach the people’s economy that is being sustained by MSMEs.

As an economic backbone, intensive literacy to introduce digital transformation and transaction products, MSMEs will become a more empowered backbone to the economy, through business process efficiency and new values from growing businesses.

Meanwhile, Special Staff to the Minister, Arya Sinulingga, affirmed that Thohir is encouraging digital training in Rumah BUMN, a space for the empowerment of the people’s economy under the ministry and managed by BRI Bank in order to increase sales by MSMEs.

Some of the earlier training participants in Rumah BUMN testified to have recorded a rise in their sales and been able to expand their business to a global scale.

“In 2010, I began my business with Rp500,000. I then continue to grow the business with my own capital, until I join the SOE Ministry and trained under BRI and was able to join an exhibition in New York,” according to one of the participants, Miral.

The Role of SOEs

Minister Thohir noted that SOEs should be able to bring prosperity to the people, as an arc that draws everyone together to build economic balance, foster business growth, and ensure the people’s welfare.

He believed that in order to achieve this, SOEs should step up and create an ecosystem that involves different parties, including regional governments, the private sector, and also farmers.

To cultivate such strong ecosystem, he pressed for an understanding of common interest that is adopted by every party involved.

Such common interest should be the welfare of the people rather than putting forward the interest of one or two particular sides.

The Ministry of SOEs has begun creating such an ecosystem involving state-owned companies, farmers, and the private sector as well as related ministries.

Thohir has advocated for the use of local products and encouraged people to buy and wear local.

“If our own nation cannot show appreciation for our own products, much like what the Koreans are doing, then our market will not grow. We have to ensure that our market is for the growth of the Indonesian economy,” he stated.

It has become apparent from the several endeavors made by the Ministry of SOE to ensure that Indonesia’s market growth surpasses that of other countries for the benefit and welfare of Indonesian people.

Hence, the market should be guarded by all parties involved through tangible policies and programs as well as advocacies for local product consumption.

Source: Antara News

The Waste-to-Energy Processing (PSEL) project in Tangerang city is now entering a new phase, Mayor of Tangerang Arief R. Wismansyah has said.

“This is an effort to improve public health and environmental quality in Tangerang city, to reduce waste accumulation at Rawa Kucing Landfill, and to get an added value in the form of electrical energy,” he informed in a statement received in Jakarta on Monday.

The implementation of PSEL in Tangerang city is a breakthrough in urban waste management, he opined.

Director of waste management at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Novrizal Tahar, lauded the steps taken by the Tangerang city government and all the people who have supported the PSEL’s socialization.

While efforts are being made to encourage a change in people’s behavior in terms of consumption and other socioeconomic activities, waste management solutions can no longer follow the conventional approach, he said.

There are many problems such as limited land and an increase in the volume of waste, which cannot be eliminated by simply piling up waste in landfills, he elaborated.

“We need to industrialize waste management with modern technologies and manage it professionally. Certainly, with the right technology (this can be achieved), and the institutional structure must also be good,” Novrizal said.

Waste emergencies in the 12 cities included in Presidential Regulation No. 35 of 2018 are like chronic diseases, he said adding, they have already reached stages 4–5 in severity.

Therefore, it is not enough just to change behavior, he said. Interventions, such as the use of various technologies at PSEL facilities, including in Tangerang city, are needed to accelerate the resolution of this problem, he observed.

According to Energy conversion expert from Bandung Institute of Technology, Pandji Prawisudha, the integration of several technologies in the development plan of the Tangerang city PSEL facility, namely sorting, biogas production, and RDF combustion facilities, has the potential to form a circular supply chain that will mutually reinforce the resolution of solid waste problems.

“Whether or not PSEL in Tangerang city is suitable, I dare to say that PSEL is a suitable solution for Indonesia, and I hope that the PSEL that will be built in Tangerang city will reduce the pile of garbage at the Rawa Kucing Landfill, which has not been utilized so far,” he remarked.

Environmental activist from the Gawe Rukun Kunciran Indah Garbage Bank Community, Tukidi, expressed support for the government’s program to process waste at PSEL facilities.

This is because the amount of waste that arrives at Rawa Kucing is very unsettling since it has exceeded 1,500 tons per day, he said. If the waste is not processed, it will be only a matter of time before the Rawa Kucing landfill stops receiving waste, he added.

“The faster the implementation, the better it is; there is no other way but to agree with the program,” Tukidi said.

President director of Oligo Infrastructure Indonesia, Cynthia Hendrayani, also praised ministries and institutions at the central government level and the Tangerang city government officials who have successfully raised awareness on the problem of waste and the PSEL. The discussion evoked positive responses from stakeholders, she noted.

In a poll conducted during the awareness drive, 93 percent of the respondents supported the development of the Tangerang city PSEL, while the remaining 7 percent took a neutral stand, she informed. There were no participants who did not support the Tangerang city PSEL, she said. Moreover, a member of the DPRD, Warta Supriyatna, reaffirmed the council’s support for this activity, she added.

“The strong public support is, of course, very encouraging, and it brings hope of a smooth development of the PSEL’s physical infrastructure, which will begin with the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Tangerang city government and Oligo soon,” she said.

“For the socialization that has taken place, we have received inputs, aspirations, and expectations from stakeholders. In particular, Oligo expressed appreciation to the Tangerang city government for successfully bringing the cooperation to this stage,” Hendrayani added.

Recently, the Tangerang city government organized an online open public outreach to solicit inputs from cross-stakeholder, which included the central government (Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Public Work & Public Housing, Ministry of Environment and Forestry), Banten province government, Tangerang city head of Local Government Agencies (OPD), academics, experts, environmental activists, and Tangerang city’s community leaders.

This activity was attended by nearly 300 participants, which proved the public’s enthusiasm for the plan to build the PSEL facility in Tangerang city, Hendrayani said.

Source: Antara News