Surabaya City Government Targets Reducing MBR Residents By Up To 300 Thousand This Year

Mayor of Surabaya Eri Cahyadi /DOK Private Instagram

SURABAYA - The Surabaya City Government targets to reduce the number of people belonging to the low-income group (MBR) to 300 thousand people from a total of 979,624 MBR residents in 2022.

"How? The city government together with the Surabaya Regional House of Representatives and related stakeholders will work together to alleviate poverty", said Surabaya Mayor Eri Cahyadi, quoted by Antara, Thursday, April 7.

According to him, the Surabaya City Government continues to strive to improve the welfare of the MBR with various programs, one of which is the launching of the Intensive Work program in March 2022.

To support this, he continued, the ex-village treasury land (BTKD) spread across the city of Surabaya will be optimized for the empowerment of the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.

Eri hopes that MBR residents can take advantage of the assets of the Surabaya City Government, both in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, such as car wash businesses, sewing, batik production houses, cafes, and culinary tourism centers.

"Surabaya has many assets, so to eradicate poverty, malnutrition, and stunting, we must have jobs for our unemployed residents", said Eri.

Eri Cahyadi said that the government, which acts as a facilitator, is tasked with supporting community activities to generate income, thereby raising the standard of living. So, he said, the land must be utilized by workers from the Surabaya MBR circles.

In addition, he said, in the land management process, the MBR will receive assistance from experts. The Surabaya City Government also divides them in the use of land, namely based on the location of residence. This is done, to anticipate the existence of assets that will be used by individuals.

"So there are already names of the MBR groups who are responsible for each land and will definitely be the supervision of the Surabaya City Government and Regional House of Representatives", he said.