Resettlement successfully alleviates poverty

Resettlement successfully alleviates poverty

JAKARTA (JP): Participants in the international seminar on population resettlement agreed yesterday that, despite differences in background, transmigration programs have proven successful in reducing social disparity.

Representatives from Ethiopia, Brazil, the Philippines, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia all said resettlement also promotes regional development, on the condition that governments sponsor the programs and then monitor progress.

Kartomo Wirosuhardjo, a demographic expert at the University of Indonesia, said the Indonesian program has been accepted nationwide because it helps narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, and between the regions.

About seven million landless Indonesians have been resettled and have significantly improved their welfare in their new homes, he said.

Brazilian Minister of Agriculture Raul David Do Valle said his country launched a set of agrarian reforms in 1964 to regulate land ownership. Brazil, like Indonesia, has progressed greatly in its effort to alleviate poverty, he said.

"My government is currently intensifying land reforms to resettle 1.4 million landless workers and unemployed people," he said.

He said the approximate per capita income has reached US$2,300. The country has 154 million people.

Ngo The Dan, Vietnam's vice minister of agriculture and rural development, said his government was also intensifying its transmigration program. He said the poor constitute 20 percent of the country's 74 million people.

"Besides the resettlement programs, our government has also taken new deregulatory measures to woo foreign investors and to create more job opportunities," he said.

He said Vietnam, as the poorest member in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, would continue to learn how to promote transmigration from other members.

Cambodian Minister of Rural Development Hong Sun Hot said the resettlement program in his war-torn country focused on resettling millions of refugees following the reinstatement of the Cambodian Kingdom and government in 1993.

"Besides resettling the war's returnees, the government is cooperating with the UN High Commission for Refugees in handling the problem of 360,000 people displaced in the civil war," he said.

Prof. Mubyarto, from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, moderated yesterday's session and said that compared to the other countries, Indonesia is far more advance in promoting resettlement as a way to alleviate poverty.

"Progress in quantity and quality has been made," he said.

Mubyarto, who is also the assistant to Minister of National Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita, concurred that governments must play a key role in conducting and monitoring the programs.

Without proper supervision and proof of results, "the programs can be seen as a waste," he said.

P.J. Van Dooren, an expert consultant at the Ministry of Transmigration between 1970 and 1983, said the transmigration program in Indonesia is often criticized because of glitches in its implementation.

There have been reports of settlers in remote areas in Sumatra and Kalimantan not being provided with proper housing and facilities, he said.

He said that the government must be selective when identifying groups to be included in its transmigration program.

"The program should be earmarked only for landless peasants, the unemployed and the poor," he said. (rms)