Governor Khofifah: Economic Growth In 2024 Must Be More Inclusive

East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa said that the East Java economy in the future is expected to grow more inclusively and have a real impact on society.

"Economics in East Java must grow inclusively and have an impact. Increasing growth will provide droplets of welfare, will grow to reduce unemployment, and will have an impact on reducing poverty, stunting will decrease, and education will improve," said Khofifah, quoted from ANTARA, Sunday, December 10.

Khofifah also expressed optimism in welcoming the East Java economy in 2024, following 2023, East Java's economic growth was recorded as satisfactory.

"Economic growth in East Java is directly proportional to efforts to eradicate extreme poverty in East Java. Extreme poverty in East Java has dropped dramatically from 4.4 percent in 2020 to 0.82 percent as of March 2023," he said.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) noted that the East Java economy in the third quarter of 2023 grew by 1.79 percent, which is the highest among other provinces on the island of Java.

"East Java is also the second largest contributor to the economy in Indonesia by 14.6 percent and the second largest contributor to the economy in Java is 25.56 percent," he said.

He said this achievement could not be separated from the various development programs in villages because so far the pockets of poverty have been found in rural areas. "One of these programs is independent villages and foreign exchange villages," he said. East Java, he said, became the province with the highest number of independent villages in Indonesia which reached 2,800 villages. This number contributes 24.44 percent of the total independent villages in Indonesia. Likewise with foreign exchange villages, namely from 613 foreign exchange villages in Indonesia, 149 villages or 24 percent of them are in East Java.

Likewise with the Human Development Index (HDI) in East Java. As of December 1, 2023, East Java's HDI was recorded at 74.65, an increase of 3.15 percent during the 2019 period of 2023," he said.

What is proud, he continued, is based on BPS data, the achievement of HDI 2023 East Java is above the national average of 74.39.

East Java's HDI is also above the achievements of other major province HDIs on the island of Java, namely West Java (74.24) and Central Java (73.39).

In addition, the meeting also discussed challenges that Indonesia would face, one of which was related to food security.

In this regard, Governor Khofifah is very optimistic because East Java has been a national food barn since 2020. East Java's rice production is the highest among other provinces since 2020-2023.

Based on the temporary figure of BPS, East Java's rice production in 2023 reached 9.59 million tons of GKG or contributed 17.89 percent of national production of 53.63 million tons of GKG.

The same applies to other commodities such as beef, corn, bananas, and fisheries.

"This is realized thanks to the synergy of all parties, including the district or city governments that collaborate, the success of the alsintan support, such as the bed dryer, the combine plant planter, and the Rice Milling Unit (RMU)," he said.

Khofifah added, post-harvest is one of her concerns so that in addition to increasing productivity, the quality of rice produced by farmers can also increase and fall into the category of medium to premium rice.

"When the rice produced is able to meet premium standards, the price will certainly improve. So that it also has an impact on the welfare of the farmers," he said.

Head of Bank Indonesia Representative for East Java Province, Doddy Zulverdi, said that this meeting in addition to discussing the reflection of the East Java economy in 2023, also seeks to identify the challenges that will be faced.

"So, we can all anticipate well and economic growth in East Java remains positive," he said.

This meeting was also attended by the Regional Secretary of East Java Province Adhy Karyono, Head of Kanreg IV OJK, Head of Regional Office of the Directorate General of Treasury of East Java, Head of Regional Office of the Directorate General of Customs and Excise 1 East Java, Board of Representatives of BI East Java, and academics.