Getting British Assistance Of Rp9.57 Billion, Dolly Village Will Be Transformed Into A City Of The Future

Menkop UKM Teten Masduki (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki will turn the Dolly area, Putat Jaya District, Surabaya, to implement the concept of the future (future cities). This is an effort to improve Gang Dolly's image, which used to be full of prostitution areas, into productive areas by utilizing MSMEs.

Coordinating Minister for SMEs Teten Masduki said the effort received support from the British Embassy for Indonesia. In fact, this support is in the development of community Human Resources (HR) in the region, including its collaboration with SMESCO in the Future Cities project.

"The synergy and collaboration of this future city program is a starting point in realizing developments for MSME players. This program is very ambitious because it is able to transform prostitution areas into productive industries," said Teten in a written statement received by VOI, Thursday, June 22.

Teten said that Dolly Village in her history was considered the center of the highest concentration of prostitution in the Southeast Asia region before the government finally carried out control and closure in 2014.

The government's decision to close the prostitution industry in Dolly was mainly due to the consideration of the reality of human trafficking practices, exploitation of women and minors, and the complexity of the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. The closure also aims to save the next generation with the best achievement of education for local children.

But on the other hand, the impact of the local economy was affected by the closure because many local residents depend on this derivative industry as their main source of income. Many of Putat Jaya's residents lost their jobs and 18 percent of them still live below the poverty line.

"It is proven that to this day, Dolly's people have actually felt the change. They quickly adapted to present business products. Approximately 11 SMEs have produced creative innovations," said Teten.

Then, in order for the prostitution area development project to become the center of the creative economy to continue, Minister Teten asked the Surabaya City Government to continue to provide assistance, as well as the absorption of products made by Dolly's people, such as in the hotel and tourism industry sector.

According to Teten, Dolly's MSMEs have also formed cooperatives, and will continue to be consolidated through scaling up cooperatives. KemenKopUKM also has financing for cooperatives, those who join cooperatives will continue to be fostered and facilitated in terms of financing.

"The products are marketed through the absorption of the government's program to buy domestic products by 40 percent," he said.

In the future, the Minister of Cooperatives hopes that the success of the transformation of the prostitution area in Dolly will become a role model for the transformation of other similar areas. "So, it is hoped that economic development in the regions will continue to occur," he said.

On the same occasion, British Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor Leste Owen Jenkins said the assistance provided by the British Government in developing the Dolly area cost up to 500 thousand pounds, equivalent to Rp9.57 billion.

"Investasi ini penting mendukung Pemkot Surabaya dan saya senang melihat perubahan besar yang terjadi hari ini. Kami berharap, program ini akan terus berlanjut, sebagaimana saya sebut, proyek ini perlu idean baru dalam pengembangan UMKM dan pemerintah untuk menyelesaikan transformasi yang belum selesai di Dolly," jelas Jenkins.

Similarly, Surabaya Mayor Eri Cahyadi said the City Government had followed up on Dolly's development. One of them is by forming cooperatives for MSMEs affected by the previous closure of this prostitution area.

"Because they (MSMEs) also cannot develop individually, for that it is combined into cooperatives so that it is easy to control the flow of income and increase the ability of MSME human resources. We do not want Dolly's area to be closed, but the economy is also closed," he added.