Preparing Super Resilient Human Resources from Batang Hari

When discussing Indonesia Emas 2045, public attention often focuses on the construction of toll roads, industrial estates, investment, or downstream processing. All of these are indeed important. However, I believe that Indonesia’s future is actually being determined in far simpler places: primary school classrooms, village integrated health posts (Posyandu), community health centres (Puskesmas), and family rooms where parents accompany their children in learning.

It is there that the quality of human resources is shaped. It is there that the demographic bonus will either be won or squandered. Indonesia is now entering one of the most decisive phases in its development history. Over the next two decades, the proportion of the working-age population will reach its highest point. This momentum is often referred to as the golden window towards Indonesia Emas 2045. Yet the history of many countries teaches that a demographic bonus is not a guarantee of progress. It is merely an opportunity that must be fought for.

Countries that successfully harness their demographic bonus are not those with the largest working-age populations, but rather those that can ensure their people grow up healthy, receive quality education, master relevant skills, and are able to adapt to changing times. Without this, the demographic bonus can instead become a development burden.

It is here that I see the role of local government as highly strategic. Indonesia will not win the demographic bonus through national policy alone. The nation’s future is actually built from thousands of villages, sub-districts, and regencies that work daily to ensure their children have the opportunity to grow, learn, and develop optimally.

We have tended to measure development success by what is visible: roads built, bridges inaugurated, or buildings standing tall. Yet the development that most determines the future often does not show immediate results. Building people takes longer than building infrastructure, but its benefits will be felt across generations.

This awareness guided us when formulating the Batang Hari development vision of SuPer TANGGUH (Successful Economy, Leading, Religious, Comfortable, Mutual Cooperation, Quality, and Harmonious).

Among all the values that form its foundation, there is one word we always use as an anchor: Quality (Bermutu). For us, quality is not merely about improving public services, but a determination to produce Batang Hari human resources who are competitive, professional, resilient in the face of change, and rooted in noble moral values. This spirit aligns with the national agenda that places strengthening education, basic health, and technological adaptation as the foundation towards Indonesia Emas 2045.

The choice to make human development a priority also stems from Batang Hari’s own character. This regency possesses significant economic capital for growth. The agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sectors remain the backbone of the regional economy, contributing Rp12.93 trillion or approximately 45.22 per cent of Gross Regional Domestic Product in 2025. At the same time, Batang Hari has around 182,702 hectares of oil palm plantations and 71,741 hectares of rubber plantations that serve as the livelihood for most of its people.

However, amid global economic dynamics, we recognise that the future can no longer be built solely by relying on the sale of raw commodities. Regions must dare to make a leap towards an economy that generates added value through downstream processing, innovation, and the use of technology.

Therefore, Batang Hari’s development direction does not stop at increasing production, but moves towards creating added value. The emergence of a young generation of farmers who utilise mechanisation, digital technology, and data-driven approaches gives optimism that the agrarian sector can become a space for modern entrepreneurs to emerge as well as a driver of the regional economy.

Yet such a transformation is only possible if supported by people with adequate competence. Infrastructure can be built. Technology can be brought in. Investment can enter. But the ability to think, innovate, and lead change is only born through quality education. That is why the greatest investment is not only in technology, but in people.

Economic development and human development must go hand in hand. This is why we place education as the most strategic investment. We have often measured educational success by school participation rates or the construction of new classrooms. Yet the greatest challenge in education today is no longer ensuring children come to school, but ensuring they actually learn.

Our children must be able to understand what they read, reason using numbers, solve problems, work together, and possess strong character. The world of work they will face in twenty years may be very different from today’s. Therefore, the ability to learn throughout life is far more important than merely memorising knowledge.

On this basis, we place the strengthening of literacy and numeracy as the foundation of learning. The ability to understand information, think logically, and make data-based decisions is the primary provision for the young generation of Batang Hari to compete and become creators of solutions amid rapid change.

These efforts are beginning to show encouraging results. Literacy and numeracy achievement at the lower secondary level has exceeded the local government’s target. However, we recognise that this foundation must be built more strongly from primary school onwards. For us, every improvement in literacy is not merely a figure in a report, but an increase in opportunities for Batang Hari’s children to develop their potential.

This success will certainly not be achieved without teachers who continue to grow. Teachers are the main actors of change in the classroom. Therefore, improving teacher competence is an important part of our human development strategy. Teachers need support to deliver more meaningful learning, use technology wisely, and foster curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking skills in students.

However, quality education never stands alone. A child who suffers from malnutrition, grows up without adequate stimulation, or faces health problems will struggle to absorb learning, no matter how good the quality of teachers and schools. Education and health are two sides of the same coin.

Therefore, human development must begin in the first thousand days of life. Strengthening Posyandu, improving maternal and child health services, preventing stunting, providing clean water, and improving sanitation are not merely health programmes. They are all long-term investments that determine the quality of Indonesia’s human resources in the future.

In Batang Hari, we are also strengthening the by name by address approach so that every pregnant woman, infant, and toddler can be monitored more precisely. By recognising the condition of each family individually, the local government can provide interventions that are faster, better targeted, and sustainable. This approach also strengthens cross-sector collaboration so that the handling of nutritional issues does not stop as an administrative programme, but truly reaches those most in need.

Our experience teaches that human development can never be accomplished by the government alone. Schools need families. Teachers need parental support. Health workers need community participation. The government needs the business world, academics, the media, community organisations, and local communities.

The strongest foundation is even at home. The family is a child’s first school, where character is formed, reading culture is introduced, and healthy living habits are instilled. When families perform this function well, schools and the government will find it easier to deliver quality education. This spirit of collaboration is what we continue to build in Batang Hari.

Together with Tanoto Foundation, for example, we are strengthening the quality of learning through the PINTAR Programme, which focuses on improving literacy and numeracy. At the same time, the SIGAP Programme supports the strengthening of parenting, maternal and child health, and basic community services. Partnerships like this demonstrate that human development is far more effective when each party contributes according to its capacity and expertise.

Ultimately, the measure of development success is not how many physical projects have been completed. What matters more is whether more children have the opportunity to learn well, fewer families face nutritional problems, and more young people are able to create a better future for themselves and their region.

I believe Indonesia Emas 2045 will not be built only from Jakarta or the big cities. Indonesia will progress when thousands of regencies and cities make the same decision: to place people as the most valuable investment.

Roads can be built in a matter of months. Buildings can be erected within a few years. But building people requires consistency, patience, and the courage to think far beyond a single term of government.

From Batang Hari, we have learned that a region’s progress is ultimately determined not by the size of its natural resources, but by the quality of the people who manage them.

More than two thousand years ago, the classical Chinese text Guanzi reminded us, ‘If you plan for one year, plant rice. If you plan for ten years, plant trees. If you plan for a lifetime, plant (develop) people.’

That message remains relevant today. When every child obtains the opportunity to grow healthily, learn well, and develop their potential optimally, we are truly building the foundation of Indonesia Emas, not tomorrow, but starting today.