Because Of COVID-19, The Poverty Rate In Bogor Rises

Bogor Regent, Ade Yasin as Chair of the Bogor Regency COVID-19 Handling Task Force in Cibinong, Bogor, West Java. (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Regent of Bogor, Ade Yasin, said that the COVID-19 pandemic has an impact on the increasing population in Bogor Regency, West Java, which is estimated at 2.6 percent.

"The poverty rate is increasing, the prediction of the percentage of poor people in Bogor Regency in 2020 is 9.26 percent, an increase of 2.6 percent from 2019's 6.66 percent," he said in Cibinong, Bogor, Thursday, January 28.

According to him, this condition is one of the targets in refocusing the budget in the economic recovery sector which will be carried out by the Bogor Regency Government (Pemkab) in the near future.

The head of the Bogor Regency COVID-19 Handling Task Force said he would prepare a social safety net program to reduce poverty.

The program is believed to have other positive impacts, such as improving community welfare and reducing the number of social problems due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Then the economic recovery program is expected to increase the rate of growth and reduce unemployment," explained Ade Yasin.

The reason is, in addition to increasing poverty rates, Bogor Regency Government also has a number of other challenges in carrying out economic recovery. Some of them are the rate of economic growth which is predicted to decline in the second quarter of 2020, namely -4.55 percent from the first quarter of 2020 which was 3.95 percent.

Then, the increase in the unemployment rate in 2020 is predicted to reach 12.97 percent, an increase of 3.91 percent from 2019 which was only 9.06 percent.