JAKARTA – Minister of Home Affairs Muhammad Tito Karnavian emphasized that the village is a new center of the economy amidst the high rate of urbanization.
And because of that, he invited the community to brainstorm together to find ways to strengthen the village in order to accelerate the development and prevent the phenomenon of urbanization.
Programs of developing and strengthening the villages, according to him, are very vital for the interests of the nation in the future.
“Villages must become new economic centers, we should not only rely on cities. Even though currently our urban population, according to Dukcapil data, has started to outnumber rural residents–around 51-52 percent live in cities, but around 40 percent, 48-49 percent are in villages. This is what we face now,” said Tito during the Kick Off National Coordination Meeting for the Implementation of the 2023 Village Governance Strengthening and Developing Program (P3PD) at the Grand Sahid Jaya Hotel, Jakarta, Tuesday (11/7).
Reflecting on the countries like Japan and South Korea, he added, which have the majority of the population leave the villages and go to the cities.
In Japan, most of the citizens flock to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka; while in South Korea it is concentrated in Seoul and Busan–even though these places have a very competitive environment.
“They have to survive in these cities, with all the glamor the city has. The competitive environment makes them only give their focus on education, work, and trying to earn a good income, resulting in stress, high suicide rates. Second, they are also late to get married, some even don’t want to get married,” he said.
Tito then talked about his experience accompanying Vice President Ma’ruf Amin, who last year met the officials of Japan, such as the Governor of Tokyo, the Governor of Hokkaido, the country’s Minister of Home Affairs, as well as its Cabinet Secretary there.
These officials conveyed the problem of the lack of population growth in Japan, the number of births is less than the number of deaths.
“That also happens in Korea. What happened to the villages? The villages were abandoned, the villages are filled with old people. There is an imbalance in development between cities and villages and causes a national problem, a lack of population growth,” he said.
This condition, he continued, is in contrast to what is happening in Indonesia, which is experiencing a demographic bonus. It provides opportunities as well as obstacles.
Most of Indonesia’s population is filled by the productive age group, thus creating a large workforce for production.
“We have a demographic bonus, the workforce is high. But, if they are unwell due to, for example, stunting, or they are uneducated and untrained, this will become a burden–so they are not a demographic bonus but a demographic disaster,” he said.
In order to overcome this, he emphasized that the government has boosted efforts to progress in the fields of health and education in forming a superior generation.
Together with various stakeholders, government programs such as reducing stunting and increasing a quality workforce are ongoing efforts.
“Therefore, villages must be strengthened and open to new jobs. There is even a term that said, working in the village but getting paid with money as much as people in the city, many people think like that,” he said.(NEWS ADVERTORIAL)
