Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment: Government Works Hard to Prevent Middle Class from Downgrading

Bogor (ANTARA) - Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment Abdul Muhaimin Iskandar stated that the government is continuously striving to ensure that Indonesia’s middle class does not downgrade. “We are working as hard as possible to maintain the middle class without downgrading, where our middle class is also continuously facing various global economic pressures,” said Muhaimin Iskandar while opening the National Working Meeting of the Open University Alumni Association in Bogor, West Java, on Thursday. He added that the number of vulnerable poor groups remains very large and tends to increase. “The vulnerable poor population today is also rising due to encompassing factors, both global economic crises and various challenges we are facing,” he said. “Vulnerability upon vulnerability occurs not only due to external factors, but because the agenda choices of the past several decades warrant change. That is why President Prabowo uses the term transformation. Transformation means continuous, unending change with various experiences and processes underway to avoid repeating failures,” said Muhaimin Iskandar. The government is also championing the theme of empowerment with the aim of making Indonesia a strong and independent nation. “Since Mr Prabowo was inaugurated, this Merah Putih Cabinet is championing empowerment as part of our seriousness to continue growing and becoming strong independently because fundamentally we are a rich nation. A rich nation that actually possesses all the requirements to stand on its own feet,” said Muhaimin Iskandar.