Japan's village industry

In his recent visit to Japan, East Java Governor Basofi Soedirman was impressed by the "one village, one product" concept.

On returning home he envisaged implementing the concept in his province. In our view, analysis of local needs and constraints should be made before this concept is carried out.

So far, one village in East Java produces a variety of products. Its strength is that if one product does not do well in the market, other products may. The reverse also seems to be true.

One village, one product certainly requires more professionalism. Its weakness is that if the product is not successful in the market, the whole village will suffer.

So it would seem that diversification of products in a given village is still needed. Perhaps a more realistic approach would be to improve a certain product along with efforts to reduce the number of products in a village.

-- Surabaya Post