JAKARTA - The Ministry of Cooperatives (kemenkop) ensures that cooperatives throughout Indonesia through the Sumatra Disaster Care Cooperative Movement will continue to play an active role in the economic and social recovery after disasters in the Sumatra region.
The Minister of Cooperatives (Menkop), Ferry Juliantono, said that there were a number of cooperatives that were affected by disasters in three main provinces: Aceh, North Sumatra (Sumut) and West Sumatra (Sumbar). Especially in North Sumatra (Sumut), the flood and landslide disasters caused losses for cooperatives worth Rp. 37.72 billion.
"Then there are 9 cooperatives that are partners of LPDB (Rotating Fund Management Institution) that are affected by disasters with a total loss of Rp. 20.66 billion, consisting of 5 cooperatives in Aceh and 4 cooperatives in North Sumatra," said Ferry, quoted on Saturday, January 3.
With this condition, he continued, the Ministry of Cooperatives, Trade, and Industry through the LPDB has decided to establish a policy of restructuring financing for cooperatives affected by disasters. The Ministry of Cooperatives and LPDB will continue to carry out comprehensive monitoring so that the burden of cooperatives affected by disasters can be alleviated.
"LPDB has made efforts to restructure financing through a grace period and a 60-month extension of the tenor. In the future, monitoring will be carried out to maintain the sustainability of its business activities," he added.
In addition, the Ministry of Social Affairs has also distributed humanitarian social assistance through the Sumatra Disaster Care Cooperative Movement some time ago. The assistance distributed includes basic needs such as sanitary napkins, hygiene kits, portable toilets, water distillers, children's toys, baby food packages, Qur'an manuscripts, to shrouds. For donations collected from the Cooperative Movement, it reached IDR 1.86 billion.
"We will continue to increase the budget (assistance) for this Caring Cooperative Movement activity," said Ferry.
As a follow-up to the recovery program, the Ministry of Cooperatives and Cooperatives will help establish post offices as distribution centers for assistance to disaster victims. These posts will be established in Aceh Tamiang, Tapanuli Tengah and Agam.
The post will also serve as a place to consolidate for various parties who are ready to help reactivate business activities from existing cooperatives.
"This post will help start production activities or businesses from cooperatives that are affected, including providing supply services for goods for Temporary Permanent Housing," explained Ferry.
As an effort to maximize the effectiveness of reconciliation, the Minister of Transportation emphasized the importance of post-disaster data collection. He highlighted the importance of a precise database so that all support and recovery efforts can be faster and more targeted.
"After the emergency period, we consider it necessary to make data collection a concern. If it is not resolved, it will be back and forth to repeat the data reconciliation data collection activities," he added.
Furthermore, as part of the recovery strategy, the Ministry of Cooperatives, Industry, and SMEs will prioritize the development of outlets, warehouses, and other supporting goods for Kopdes/Kel Merah Putih who are affected. In addition, cooperatives will be given business recovery assistance and institutional strengthening so that they can operate again as drivers of the community economy.
"Then we will work with other ministries to gather all cooperatives in West Sumatra, North Sumatra and Aceh to be able to start their business activities, including for affected people," said Ferry.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
