Ministry Of Home Affairs Encourages Kupang Regency Government To Capture Economic Potential From Village Tourism

JAKARTA - The Director General of Village Administration, Ministry of Home Affairs, Yusharto Huntoyungo, encourages the Kupang Regency government, East Nusa Tenggara Province to optimize the management of tourism potential in an effort to improve the community's economy.

"Kupang Regency has many natural resources, such as tourism potential that is able to boost the economic growth of rural communities," said Yusharto, quoted by Antara, Sunday, March 20.

According to him, the natural waterfall tourism object in Oesusu Village is a very promising village economic potential.

"Oesusu Village does not only have several waterfall tourist attractions but also has abundant natural resources so that it can encourage rapid economic growth of rural communities if managed properly," he stressed.

According to him, there is a lot of abundant economic potential in NTT Province, so there should be no poor people in NTT because the economic resources for people's income are abundant.

"There are no poor areas in NTT, especially in Oesusu Village, which is abundant in natural resources if this natural potential is managed professionally by the village government," said Yusharto.

He also mentioned other potentials in the livestock sector and plantation products imported from NTT.

He said the various commodities are still being sold at cheap prices in the market.

It is said that the land of Timor is a land that is abundant with milk and honey, so it needs to be actualized through the activities of the Village Facilitators and PKK which are part of the production cycle so as to be able to encourage the community to move the economy through the potential of existing natural resources.

Meanwhile, Assistant II of the Kupang Regency Regional Secretariat, Mesak Elfeto said that the Kupang Regency Government has always prioritized the village as a locomotive for community and regional change in terms of cultural, economic, and socio-political aspects.

"We always have high expectations for the existing 160 villages, according to the target of 40 percent of villages in Kupang Regency to become developed villages by 2024," said Mesak Elfeto.

He also mentioned that there are 100 villages categorized as very underdeveloped and underdeveloped villages that are being strived to become villages with a developing category.

According to him, by strengthening the Pemdes system in Kupang Regency, starting from village planning, village finance, village administration institutions and administration, village-owned enterprises (Bumdes) and apparatus resources, all villages in Kupang Regency have been carried out simultaneously since 2021.