Transmigration revamps management

Transmigration revamps management

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Transmigration plans to revamp
the way it manages its resettlement program beginning next year,
placing more emphasis on quality rather than aiming for a
specific deadline.

Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo said that under
the new system, the government will not rush to build sites and
resettle the people within the same fiscal year as has been the
practice thus far.

Starting next year, the government will allocate the budget
for the development of the area in one fiscal year and the actual
sending of the settlers in the following year, Siswono said as
quoted by the Antara news agency.

Under the current system, the government allocates the budget
for the development of the area at the start of the fiscal year
on April 1 and the developers have until December to carry out
their job. The settlers begin arriving normally around November
and in some cases arrive when the site is not ready.

He said the old system was appropriate for transmigration
programs in Sumatra where access is easier. But for far flung
places like Irian Jaya, where Indonesia's transmigration program
is now concentrated, it is more difficult to develop.

Siswono said he is optimistic that the government's
transmigration program will achieve its target in the current
fiscal year in terms of the development of the site and also the
number of settlers it sent.

He added however that even if the government only managed 94
percent of the target, it would still be considered a success.

Under the general transmigration program, the government plans
to resettle hundreds of thousands of families from the
overcrowded islands of Java, Madura and Bali to other more
sparsely populated islands.

Besides receiving houses and land to farm, the transmigrants
are also incorporated into a development project in the area,
usually a plantation or a forestry estate. (emb)