AHY Stresses Importance of Empirical Field Data in Policy Formulation

Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY) has stressed that field data will be a crucial foundation in formulating policies to develop transmigration areas into new centres of economic growth. He conveyed this during a briefing for participants of the 2026 Patriot Expedition Team, organised by the Ministry of Transmigration, at Balai Kartini in Jakarta on Wednesday. The initiative involves 1,476 participants, including students, researchers, and professors from 10 partner state universities, collaborating with hundreds of other higher education institutions in Indonesia and abroad. They will be deployed to 53 transmigration areas, predominantly in eastern Indonesia, to continue the potential development mapping initiated by the 2025 Patriot Expedition Team. AHY assessed that a research-based regional development approach, grounded in real field conditions and carried out through academic discipline, is a strategic move, especially given that most participants are young. “We want to build transmigration areas that become new magnets for investment, economic growth, and improved community welfare. This is where the students’ contribution becomes very important, because the recommendations they produce will be born from real conditions on the ground,” he stated in a written release on Thursday. Continuing the research and mapping begun the previous year, AHY explained that participants will further identify various potentials and challenges in transmigration areas to pursue industrialisation and downstream processing across sectors including agriculture, plantations, tourism, the creative economy, and natural resources. He expressed hope that their findings and recommendations will serve as strategic input for the government in developing areas according to the unique characteristics and advantages of each transmigration site. He also reaffirmed the paradigm shift in transmigration development. “Previously, the paradigm was to move populations out of Java Island. Now, the paradigm has changed to how we build these areas to become attractive for population movement, incoming investment, and to drive sustainable development and economic growth,” he explained. AHY further hoped that the participants’ observations would be academically accountable and become an empirical reference complementing government data in policy formulation for transmigration area development. “Hopefully, when academic input meets strategic policy at the central level, truly effective and well-executable policies will be born. Empirical data from the field will be an important foundation in formulating targeted policies,” he said. In a separate occasion, Minister of Transmigration M. Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara confirmed that the government has prepared various measures to ensure the security and safety of all participants during their field assignments, particularly in Papua and other eastern Indonesian regions. The 2025 Patriot Expedition Team produced 400 research documents and recommendations. These results will be followed up by the 2026 team through further research and mentoring tailored to the needs and potential of each transmigration area. The goal is to accelerate the transformation of transmigration areas into new, inclusive, competitive, and sustainable economic growth centres.