Minister of Villages Urges Village Heads Across South Sulawesi to Realise President's Sixth Asta Cita

According to Yandri, this only requires effort and diligent oversight by every village head (kades) to advance to levels of empowerment and support for communities and economic actors at the village level.

“I already reached an agreement yesterday that we will export materials or village products to 59 countries, so village heads across South Sulawesi can create thematic villages,” said Yandri in a written statement on Thursday (14/5/2026).

“Then in South Sulawesi, from over 2,000 villages, we can export lemongrass, in addition to meeting local needs,” he added while giving directions at the Readiness Roll Call attended by all village heads in South Sulawesi, at the Governor’s Residence Field, Makassar City, on Wednesday (13/5).

Furthermore, Yandri is convinced that with a broader market reach, economic turnover will continue to increase, thereby improving rural community welfare evenly.

Yandri stated that this enables local producers to scale up their production.

In addition, to penetrate that global market, local products are required to meet international standards. According to Yandri, this automatically drives improvements in product quality and standards.

“So that the people in the villages prosper, so that production increases, so that local products from South Sulawesi go global. Because we at the Ministry of Villages have an export village programme,” explained Yandri.

Yandri also urged all village heads (kades) to map out village flagship commodities, whether agriculture, plantations, fisheries, or crafts, so that they also have competitiveness and global market quality standards.

This programme aligns with the sixth Asta Cita, which is about building from the villages and aims to change the village paradigm from a development object to a subject or main actor in the economy, as well as to improve community welfare through the optimisation of local potentials.

“I already conveyed to the Governor earlier, I will return here, bringing the buyers, bringing the purchasers, for us to sign contracts with the village heads,” said the minister from South Bengkulu.

For information, the event was also attended by South Sulawesi Governor Andi Sudirman Sulaiman, Member of Commission IX of the Indonesian House of Representatives Ashabul Kahfi, Inspector General of Kemendes PDT Masyhudi, and Head of the South Sulawesi Provincial Kesbangpol Bustanul Arifin.