Bitter Pandemic, Young People's Efforts To Restore Economy Towards East Java Rise

SURABAYA - Economic recovery is the government's focus in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the family economy.

As did Muhammad Fathurrozi, 36, a resident of Tawangsari Village, Taman District, Sidoarjo Regency, East Java.

The father of one child managed to turn paper into a paper bag. As a result, the paperbags he sells are flooded with orders. The customers are from Sabang to Meraoke.

At first, Fathurrozi had to rack his brain so that paper could produce rupiah seeds. Starting from reading many articles as a reference, to looking for business opportunities on social media (social media).

"At first I was confused about what to sell, but after getting lots of references on social media, I finally tried selling paper bags," said Rozi, his nickname, Friday, September 24.

Rozi admitted that the COVID-19 pandemic had a positive impact on his business. At first he sold his products to shops, institutions and agencies. But suddenly stopped completely due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally he tried to sell through an online shop in one of the applications.

"I was confused because the paper bags were not sold, while I had to pay the workers," said Rozi.

Rozi admitted that he had to rack his brain so as not to lay off about 40 of his workers, who were in charge of folding paperbags manually. He also does not have enough money to pay workers, and the operational needs of his products.

"Finally, I was forced to borrow Rp100 million from a bank through a low-cost revolving fund (dagulir) program with 3 percent interest," he said.

Rozi is grateful for the East Java Provincial Government's dagulir program. This is because his business has survived, and he is even overwhelmed by receiving paper bag orders which are now being sold online, in collaboration with several online shop applications.

"Alhamdulillah, there are more paperbag products during the COVID-19 outbreak than before," he said.

Likewise, Qurratun Aini, 26, a resident of Kepuh Teluk Village, Tambak District, Gresik Regency, who took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to sell online. He makes rainbow macreme crafts, which are then sold through an online shop.

"Actually, try it, more to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are selling online," said Een, his nickname.

The mother of one admitted that it was not difficult to earn money, as long as there was a strong will to work. What he does doesn't cost much, just buy materials in the form of colorful yarn to make rainbow macreme.

"It turns out that there are also many interested people, initially only two to three people ordered, now there are dozens of customers per day," he said.

He charges a price of Rp. 13 - Rp. 15 thousand per product, depending on the size. Currently, the turnover reaches Rp. 100 to Rp. 500 thousand per day, from the previous Rp. 100 thousand. "Alhamdulillah, it's okay to add more. Instead of being unemployed at home, now I'm trying to do it slowly," he said.

Meanwhile, the Governor of East Java, Khofifah Indar Parawansa, admitted that he was continuously trying to restore the economy. Given the decline in the economy of East Java, the national impact. Another reason is that the East Java Provincial Government's partners with other provinces have also decreased.

"When their purchasing power is high, it will definitely give significance to East Java's economic growth. But if their purchasing power is low, it will also have an impact on East Java's economic growth rate," said Khofifah.

A number of sectors that experienced a decline, namely the growth of the East Java trade sector decreased from 6.29 percent to 6.04 percent this year. Then the contribution of the manufacturing sector also weakened from 7.55 percent in 2018 to 6.8 percent this year.

Meanwhile, the performance of the East Java livestock sector towards the national level, one of which is about the cattle population towards self-sufficiency in meat, contributes 28 percent to the national level. In addition, East Java's economic growth is also quite solid, which is still above the national average of 5.04 percent.

"That's why we continue to try to increase the economic activities of MSMEs, because in terms of MSME credit in East Java, it is much stronger than corporations," he said.

Khofifah mentioned the distribution of People's Business Credit (KUR) of Rp190 trillion in 2020 with an interest of 6 percent, which will then be distributed by banks operating in East Java. The hope is that SMEs and new entrepreneurs can absorb these cheap credit funds.

"I believe this MSME sector will be able to provide support for the rise of the economy in East Java," said Khofifah.

Not only that, Khofifah also prepared a budget of around Rp.454.26 billion to revive the economy in the MSME sector. The budget of hundreds of billions is intended for institutional strengthening, marketing facilitation, strengthening access to financing, strengthening production for business restructuring, and strengthening human resources for small and medium business cooperatives (KUKM).

The budget also includes financial assistance through the revolving fund program (dagulir). This is a soft credit financing assistance program, to increase and expand access to financing for productive businesses, reduce poverty, unemployment, and encourage economic growth.

There are four revolving credit schemes, namely working capital loans worth Rp. 300 million with interest of 3, 4, up to 6 percent. Then investment credit of IDR 500 million with 6 percent interest, then picking, processing, packaging, selling credit of IDR 10 billion with 6 percent interest.

Finally, credit for small and medium industries (IKM) is IDR 50 million with an interest rate of 4 percent. This deglir program has facilitated around 17,038 business actors, and has absorbed 36,312 workers in East Java.

Meanwhile, dagulir that had been distributed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic reached Rp12.83 billion to 55 debtors. Khofifah said, this is a capital distribution program for business actors, for economic recovery in East Java.

"There are 9.8 million MSME actors in East Java, this is an important part of our joint PR to encourage them to continue to grow. One of them is by providing revolving funds from both the East Java BPD and from the central government," he said.

However, Khofifah considers that the budget is not enough without the involvement of roles, as well as all strategic elements to boost the rise of MSMEs.

To that end, Khofifah asked regents/mayors throughout East Java to maximize the realization of the APBD, in order to encourage MSMEs to be able to survive again in the midst of the economic crisis.

Khofifah is optimistic that the East Java economy will rise, by including the role of MSMEs in a more dominant way. Moreover, MSMEs are proven to be the backbone of the economy in East Java, with a contribution of up to 54 percent of the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GDP) of East Java.

"Maximizing budget realization in the current situation is very important, especially to encourage the MSME sector in regencies/cities where the regent/mayor is the commander," he said.