Backward Villages at Eastern Region of Indonesia

I started off three decades ago with the ambition of visiting every island within the archipelago of Indonesia but a few factors intervened (marriage etc). Although, as yet, I haven’t achieved my goal, I am determined to do so.

I was surprised, however, to read in the Tempo magazine that 32,379 villages are regarded as being ‘backward’, or, disadvantaged. Here is the article:

Out of 70,611 villages in Indonesia, 32,379 of them are categorized as backward —with 62 percent of them are situated in the eastern regions of Indonesia, Development of Disadvantaged Regions Minister Syaifullah Yusuf said at his office.

According to Syaifullah, out of the entire backward villages, 17,649 of them are located in backward regencies. In addition, out of 440 regencies in Indonesia, 199 of them are backward.

Some criteria are set out to determine backward regions: by looking at the completeness of the infrastructure in the regions, for instance.

According to Syaifullah, the government is preparing three programs for helping the development of backward regions. One of them will be by setting up the infrastructure in order to accelerate economic growth. “If the economic growth is high, employment will be opened and the poverty rate can decrease,” he said.

The government is also trying to develop the local economy through “Accelerating the Development for Backward Production Regions” program. Twenty backward regencies will acquire funds of Rp910 per year to increase the commodities.

It is expected that through the program, 10-15 percent of backward villages and regencies may decrease in 2009.

Pramono

Source: Tempo Interactive