Deputy Home Affairs Minister Ribka Highlights Eastern Indonesia's Key Role for Golden Indonesia
Deputy Home Affairs Minister Ribka Haluk has emphasised that Eastern Indonesia plays an important role in realising the Golden Indonesia 2045 vision. According to her, the natural resource potential and communities in Eastern Indonesia need to be optimised by improving competitiveness and welfare, as well as supporting various national development programmes.
Ribka explained that with a population of around 286 million and supported by a demographic bonus, Indonesia has the capital to realise this vision. However, this potential needs to be managed properly so that the large number of productive-age people truly provides benefits for development.
“We are currently experiencing a demographic bonus. This means the percentage of the productive-age population is quite high compared with those under 15 and over 60. Indonesia already has a demographic bonus. We really must ensure that we become productive,” she said in a written statement on Saturday (29/8/2026).
She made the remarks while delivering a keynote speech at the 2026 National Building Conference at the Dome Harvest Building, Lippo Karawaci, Tangerang, Banten, on Saturday (29/8).
Ribka assessed that managing the demographic bonus requires the role of the government as well as support from all elements of society. Therefore, various national priority programmes under the President’s leadership through Asta Cita need to be supported so that their benefits can be felt by the public.
These programmes include Free Nutritious Meals, food self-sufficiency through the use of agricultural land and food barns, infrastructure development, the construction of integrated schools, and efforts to reduce poverty.
“We should actually be grateful to the President, who wants to improve the quality of people’s lives. In fact, regional governments should be more active so that these programmes can be implemented. These are actually very good programmes,” she explained.
In the context of Eastern Indonesia’s development, Ribka highlighted the implementation of National Strategic Projects in Papua. According to her, the development of various infrastructure in the region still faces a number of challenges on the ground, requiring public support and collaboration from various parties.
In addition to infrastructure development, Ribka stressed the importance of improving community competitiveness, particularly in Eastern Indonesia. These efforts are needed to expand opportunities for people to improve their quality of life while reducing poverty.
“Because there are quite a lot of poverty pockets in Indonesia, we hope for welfare,” she added.
Furthermore, Ribka said that development is not solely oriented towards economic growth, but must also be able to improve public welfare. She assessed that these efforts need to be supported by the application of good governance principles, consisting of participation, transparency, responsiveness, the rule of law, accountability, strategic vision, effectiveness and efficiency, justice and equality, consensus, as well as professionalism and integrity.
For information, the event was also attended by DPD RI member for the West Papua electoral district Filep Wamafma, Deputy Speaker I of the Central Papua Provincial DPR Diben Elaby, member of the National Energy Council Johni Jonatan Numberi, Chairwoman of Papuan Women Intellectuals Rosaline Irene Rumaseuw, and Chairman of the Harvest Indonesia International Theological Seminary Daniel Runtuwene.