Ministry Of Finance Hopes Village Head Uses Village Funds For Handling And Prevention Of Stunting

Illustration (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

YOGYAKARTA Director of Village Funds, Incentives, Special Autonomy, and DJPK Privileges, Jaka Sucipta revealed that under Law Number 1 of 2022 concerning Financial Relations between Central Governments and Regional Governments (UU HKPD) gave a breakthrough to reduce extreme poverty and reduce stunting.

"Village funds have been determined for the construction and prevention and handling of stunting programs," he explained in Nglangeran, Gunung Kidul, Thursday, May 2.

In addition, Jaka said that the village economy has a big contribution to the national economy. Because in the village there are many agricultural, plantation, livestock products, micro and small businesses, as well as Village-Owned Enterprises (BUMDes) that can be empowered, but face considerable challenges in supporting the development of their business.

"With Village Funds, which are the largest sources of income, the village has strong fiscal capacity to overcome capital constraints to encourage and develop local economic potential in villages", he explained.

Jaka added that Nglanggeran Village has very adequate potential to boost the village economy from the tourism sector, for example the potential for tourism agro and Nglanggeran reservoirs, as well as the Kedung Kandang seasonal waterfall.

Meanwhile, in the MSME sector, apart from Pawon Purba, Griya Batik, Griya Spa, and homestay, Nglanggeran Village also has the potential for cocoa plantations, where Griya Chocolate Nglangeran is a cocoa processing cluster from upstream to downstream.

Jaka said that Nglanggeran Village also has potential in the plantation sector, with its main commodities, cocoa and durian.

"To support these various potentials, the Government has allocated Village Funds since 2015, where for 2024, the Village Fund allocated for this village will reach Rp. 813,477,000," he explained.

Meanwhile, PT SMF through the Social and Environmental Responsibility (TJSL) program related to the Homestay Financing Program has also provided its support in boosting the economy of Nglanggeran Village, Gunung Kidul Regency.

The President Director of SMF, Ananta Wiyogo, said that the support for homestay financing in this village was one of the initiations of SMF's first Homestay Financing Program in 2019.

As for 2023, SMF has financed 24 homestay units in Nglanggeran Village, with total disbursement of funds worth IDR 1.57 billion and an average tenor of 10 years.

"Homestay financing is one of the initiatives carried out by PT SMF since 2019, as part of the commitment to assisting the Government's program in encouraging the regional economy in the housing sector through homestay programs in national tourist destinations," he explained.

Ananta further explained that Nglanggeran Village was once one of the villages that managed to enter the Top 100 World Sustainable Destinations according to the Global Green Destinations Days in 2018, and won the title of Best Tourism Village (Best Tourism Village) from the United Nation World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in 2021.

Nglanggeran Village has stunning natural tourism and its cultural sustainability can be enjoyed by tourists who reach 70,000 people by 2023.

Furthermore, LPEI also helped boost the economy of Nglanggeran Village through the Foreign Exchange Village program. This program is one of LPEI's strategic steps to encourage superior village commodities to be able to compete in penetrating the global market.

LPEI's Business Development Managing Director, Maqin U. Norhadi said, through this program, LPEI provides export management training, market access assistance, increased production capacity, and assistance related to organic certification

Maqin said LPEI focuses on increasing the capacity and competence of business actors, in addition to trying to build a solid export ecosystem through support for the cocoa commodity sector, in this case, the Cocoa Gunung Kidul Foreign Exchange Village.

In addition, Nglanggeran Village is known as a cocoa-producing area with a plantation area of 10.2 hectares or the equivalent of 5,000 cocoa trees capable of producing up to 10 tons of cocoa per year. The village community has succeeded in producing a variety of cocoa-derivative products, including fermented cocoa, cocoa bar, and cocoa nibs.

Maqin said that this activity is expected to help Gunungkidul Foreign Exchange Village to expand export market access, increase production capacity, and meet the certification requirements needed by the market.

"Currently, the Gunungkidul Foreign Exchange Village has successfully exported the first to Switzerland. With assistance from LPEI, it is hoped that the residents of Nglanggeran Village will be able to export independently and sustainably," he explained.

Finally, the Government Investment Center (PIP) with the Ultra Micro (UMi) financing program plays a role in channeling financing and assistance to ultra micro business actors who have not been able to access banks.

President Director of PIP Ismed Saputra said that UMi is a government program launched in 2017 to provide easy and affordable access to capital for micro-enterprises in Indonesia. PIP as the Ministry of Finance's BLU is tasked with coordinating UMi financing financing.

The UMi debtors are spread throughout Indonesia. For the DIY Province, there were 82,510 debtors with total disbursed financing of Rp297.4 billion. Specifically in the Gunung Kidul Regency area, PIP has reached 16,818 debtors with a distribution amount of Rp55.24 billion.

In addition to financing, Ismed conveyed that PIP also provides assistance and empowerment to improve the knowledge and skills of UMi business actors.

"Entrepreneurship training provided by PIP to UMi business actors has assisted 3,760 debtors, while complementary training for debtors has reached 1,190 people. This program has been implemented in 20 regions throughout Indonesia," he explained.