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)