Transmigration Minister: Transmigration builds integrated economic ecosystem

Transmigration Minister Muhammad Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara has said the transmigration programme aims to build an integrated economic ecosystem in transmigration areas.

“All of this shows a single good intention for how we build an integrated transmigration economic area ecosystem so that our people can obtain even broader benefits,” Iftitah said in Jakarta on Monday.

According to him, whereas transmigration used to be known simply as moving people, that is no longer the case.

“In the past, people were placed first and only then did we look at whether there were opportunities for better welfare. That was the old way. Now we first identify the economic potential, then build the industry, prepare the jobs, then provide better education and health, and only then carry out the placement,” he said.

The Ministry of Transmigration held a Transmigration Executive Dialogue: Strategic Lecture & Policy Forum featuring Transmigration Minister Muhammad Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara and Professor Soner Baskaya, an economist from the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom.

According to Iftitah, Professor Soner Baskaya said that transmigration is currently a very timely programme at exactly the right moment.

“Why is that? Because there is demand in the context of geopolitics and global economic challenges. There are problems of war, food security, climate, and many other things that are needed today. It is no longer about sporadic development, but economic development that truly gives meaning to an ecosystem that delivers greater improvements in welfare, higher incomes, and more and better jobs,” Iftitah said.

On the occasion, Professor Soner Baskaya delivered a lecture attended by various stakeholders and provided insights into the five programmes run by the Ministry of Transmigration, namely Trans Tuntas, Local Transmigration, Patriot Transmigration, Trans Karya Nusantara, and Trans Gotong Royong.

“During the lecture, each programme was discussed and examined one by one. He said that it is impossible for these programmes to stand alone; they must form a single unity. This, he said, is what transmigration should be doing, or what should have been done from the very beginning,” Iftitah said.