Vice President: 2.5 Percent Of Poverty Remains From This Year's Target

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin while chairing a ministerial meeting regarding the development of the poverty reduction acceleration program at the Vice President's Palace in Jakarta, Thursday (22/2/2024). (ANTARA/Andi Firdaus).

JAKARTA - Vice President (Vice President) Ma'ruf Amin said the development of the implementation of the poverty reduction acceleration program in Indonesia still leaves around 2.5 percent of the target set to end this year.

"Based on the calculation of the National Statistics Agency in 2023, the national poverty rate will reach 9.36 percent, while the 2020-2024 National Medium-Term Plan target is 6.5 to 7.5 percent," said Vice President Ma'ruf while chairing a ministerial level meeting related to the development of the poverty reduction acceleration program at the Vice Presidential Palace. Jakarta, reported by ANTARA, Thursday, February 22.

Ma'ruf said, Indonesia still needs to catch up with the poverty alleviation target this year of around 2.5 percent.

Therefore, the Vice President asked for input and a real picture of planning through the meeting considering that there are only 7 to eight months left to reach the target achievement deadline.

"So the time is not long anymore," he said.

He said the government needed to present a series of special policies through programs in ministries/agencies, local governments, and non-governmental support to reach 7.5 percent of the poverty rate in 2024.

"For extreme poverty, we must strive for the target to reach 0 percent, whether we are 0 months or 0 in a coma, later I will ask for a report from the Coordinating Minister," he said.

Vice President Ma'ruf also reported various achievements of the government's performance in the last five years to tackle the problem of poverty, ranging from the expansion of social assistance, innovation of public income programs through labor market policies, to mobilizing social protection during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Until finally we were able to maintain the poverty rate below 10 percent," he said.

A number of challenges that surfaced in the meeting included the accuracy of the target assistance program, the accuracy of the number and time of distribution, and the relocation of assistance programs for priority families at the lowest level of welfare.