Govt expands poverty alleviation program
Govt expands poverty alleviation program
JAKARTA (JP): The government is embarking on a program to
stimulate the emergence of new entrepreneurs in a bid to reduce
poverty in the country.
State Minister of Population Haryono Suyono and Minister of
Industry and Trade Tunky Ariwibowo singed a memorandum of
understanding to develop small-scale industry and traders in
rural areas.
Coordinating Minister for Production and Distribution Hartarto
witnessed the signing yesterday.
Haryono said after the ceremony that the program will focus on
developing skills and the capacity of the rural poor to run
small-scale industry and work as traders.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade will provide technical
assistance, and the office of the State Minister of Population
will allocate the funding, raised through donations, and also
coordinate the program.
The program will start in South Sumatra and East Java and
involve 510 very-small business units run by groups of the rural
poor. Of the total business units, 105 are in South Sumatra and
405 in East Java. The program will eventually cover all 27
provinces.
The government wants to develop 230,000 new business units in
the current five-year development plan, to end in 1999.
Savings
According to the office of the State Minister of Population,
56 percent of the 39.4 million families in Indonesia do not have
an adequate standard of living.
Haryono said his office will specially target these families
for the program.
He explained that the poverty alleviation program has so far
extended Rp 23 billion to 11.5 million families, in the form of
savings accounts of Rp 2,000 each (85 U.S. cents).
He added that his office plans to extend credit, through
state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia 1946 and the state postal firm
PT Pos Indonesia, to families which are ready to run businesses.
The funds are raised by the Dana Sejahtera Mandiri Foundation,
which so far has collected over Rp 100 billion in donations from
Indonesians earning Rp 100 million or more a year.
The government, through a Presidential decree, has ruled that
companies and individuals with annual incomes of Rp 100 million
or more must donate 2 percent of their incomes to the foundation.
Haryono said that the foundation is expected to collect
between Rp 200 billion and Rp 250 billion in donations a year for
the government-sanctioned program.
Haryono noted that his office has also received some Rp 100
billion in Presidential aid, some of which was taken from the
interests earned on the reforestation fund.
"I don't care where it came from. What I know is that the fund
is Presidential aid," Haryono asserted. (rid)