Kemenkop Gandeng Kemenpar Strengthens The Tourism Sector Through Cooperatives

Deputy Minister of Cooperatives (Wamenkop) Ferry Juliantono (photo: dock of Public Relations)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Cooperatives (Kemenkop) together with the Ministry of Tourism (Kemenpar) collaborated for the development of the tourism sector through cooperative containers. Currently in various regions in Indonesia, there are already Tourism Awareness Groups (Pokdarwis) that can be managed and upgraded the status of their business entities in the form of cooperatives.

Deputy Minister of Cooperatives (Wamenkop) Ferry Juliantono explained that the opportunity for the tourism business sector in Indonesia is very large, but some of them are still not well managed.

Therefore, there needs to be an effort to strengthen the Pokdarwis institution by changing its status to a cooperative. Together with the Ministry of Tourism, Kemenkop is ready to support strengthening human resources, access to financing, increasing competitiveness and developing business models from Pokdarwis after having business legality in the form of cooperatives.

"We can develop the Pokdarwis in the Tourism Village to become a cooperative business entity so that the Tourism Awareness Group, which has all been relatively created by the Ministry of Tourism, can be developed to be able to help Indonesian tourism become even greater, even cooler," said Ferry, Friday, February 7th.

According to Ferry, changing the status of Pokdarwis to cooperatives can be used as an opportunity to increase the business scale will be even greater. The Ministry of Cooperatives is ready to totality in supporting the development of tourism businesses managed by Pokdarwis after being a cooperative legal entity.

"So we from the Ministry of Cooperatives will collaborate to help the Ministry of Tourism so that we can assist Pokdarwis and incubation to become advanced cooperatives," he said.

Through a joint commitment between the Ministry of Cooperatives and the Ministry of Tourism, it is believed that the tourism sector will continue to develop and progress after having the legality of business entities in the form of cooperatives.

"Yes, if the tourism sector is no longer beating Indonesia, but what we need to help in the tourism sector is the development of its business model and business actors, then professionalism in managing tourism," said Ferry.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Tourism (Wamenpar) Ni Luh Puspa appreciates the commitment of the Ministry of Cooperatives to be directly involved in the development of the tourism sector through Pokdarwis. Currently, tourist village points have the potential to increase their business scale to reach 6,065 units throughout Indonesia.

"We are determined so that how these tourist villages can grow so that the economy of the people can also continue to grow. We can collaborate on how cooperatives can be present in this tourist village," said Ni Luh.

Ni Luh believes that through tourism management cooperatives, it can be more massive and develop in the future. The pattern of cooperation that can be done between the Ministry of Cooperatives and the Ministry of Tourism can be started through 17 Tourism Villages first as pilot projects.

"We have proposed 17 tourist villages that will be recommended in a collaboration program with the Ministry of Cooperatives, but this is still in accordance with the Ministry of Cooperatives," he said.