Backward Villages at Eastern Regions
Friday, 05 January, 2007 | 16:17 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: 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, said Development of Disadvantaged Regions Minister Syaifullah Yusuf yesterday (01/04) 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