Kemendes Invites ADB Indonesia to Strengthen Village Community Empowerment
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Villages and Underdeveloped Regions (Kemendes PDT) has invited the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Indonesia Resident Mission to collaborate in strengthening programmes for village community empowerment.
“We are ready to collaborate because there are many village programmes that can be partnered with the ADB,” said Minister of Villages and Underdeveloped Regions (Mendes PDT) Yandri Susanto during an audience with the ADB Indonesia Resident Mission at the Kemendes office in Jakarta, as quoted on Thursday.
In the meeting, he stated that under President Prabowo Subianto’s leadership, villages hold a strategic role.
This, he said, is evident in the sixth Astacita, which involves building from the villages and from the bottom up for economic equity and poverty eradication.
In line with this, Kemendes has introduced 12 Village Development Action Programmes, such as the development of Village-Owned Enterprises (BUMDes), Merah Putih Village Cooperatives (Kopdes), Thematic Villages, Export Villages, and Energy-Resilient Villages.
“The important thing is that in underdeveloped regions, there are still villages that need collaboration to accelerate development,” said the former Deputy Chairman of the MPR.
The collaboration, he added, will focus on sustainable green economy and village community empowerment.
He invited the ADB to jointly build villages because many villages have yet to be reached by community empowerment programmes.
On the same occasion, Deputy Minister of Villages (Wamendes) PDT Ahmad Riza Patria stated that out of Indonesia’s 75,266 villages, around 10,000 are categorised as underdeveloped and unable to meet basic needs such as electricity, education, and health.
Therefore, Wamendes Ahmad Riza Patria, familiarly known as Ariza, hopes that the ADB can collaborate with Kemendes PDT to accelerate the resolution of underdeveloped and severely underdeveloped village statuses into developing and advanced villages.
“We hope that the collaborative programmes with the ADB will be able to empower village communities to develop and prosper,” he said.