Governors Of All Sumatra Cooperate With 5 Development Programs From Infrastructure To Handling Extreme Poverty

PEKANBARU - A total of seven governors in the Sumatra region agreed to cooperate in development programs covering five fields, namely infrastructure equity, downstreaming of natural resources, strengthening tourism networks and the creative economy, accelerating stunting reduction, extreme poverty and low-carbon development.

For the joint program, the focus of the fifth program, namely on low-carbon development, needs to establish a Green Sumatra forum, and encourage the central government to stipulate a derivative ministerial regulation on the implementation of the carbon economy as the basis for the province to stipulate a regional regulation," Riau Governor Syamsuar said in Pekanbaru, as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, June 30.

Syamsuar conveyed this in the formulation of the 2022 Sumatran governor meeting held in Pekanbaru, Thursday (30/6), which was considered to have strategic and important meaning, in the hope of synergizing in accelerating development, mutually beneficial cooperation in various sectors.

The 2022 Sumatran governor meeting held in Pekanbaru, attended by Riau Governor Syamsuar, Riau Islands Governor Ansar Ahmad, West Sumatra Governor Mahyeldi, Lampung Governor Arinal Djunaidi, Bengkulu Governor Rohidin, Jambi Governor Al Haris and Acting Governor of Bangka Belitung Ridwan Djamaludin.

According to Syamsuar, the aim of the 2022 Sumatran Governor's Coordination Meeting in Riau Province is to develop communication patterns between regional governments throughout the Sumatra region.

"We hope that this activity will also become a forum for evaluating the results of previous cooperation in an effort to improve the development of their respective regions," he said.

Meanwhile, regarding the other four programs, Syamsuar explained, for infrastructure distribution, namely by encouraging the connectivity of logistics routes to the island of Sumatra. Regarding border infrastructure, among others, seeking joint handling of provincial roads in border areas through improving road quality.

"(We) jointly propose that the connecting road between provinces on the border which is a provincial road should be upgraded to a national road. There is a need for support for the Acceleration of Submission of P3D Regional Feeder Ports and improvement of port infrastructure on sea toll roads," he said.

For the second focus of cooperation, namely development in Sumatra is the downstreaming of natural resources (SDA), by trying to encourage the central government to issue policies or regulations on the distribution of superior commodity-based downstream natural resources in Sumatra.

Furthermore, agreed to establish a forum for monitoring price stability, availability and distribution, as well as access to financing for agricultural commodities (in a broad sense) in Sumatra.

In addition, increasing the capacity of human resources and farmer institutions based on corporations in order to support agricultural production center areas/food barns in Sumatra, and developing halal industrial areas (halal industrial zones) in Sumatra.

The third focus is strengthening the tourism network and the creative economy by agreeing to form a technical team / working group that will formulate the concept of halal tourism specifically for Sumatra.

The fourth focus is accelerating the reduction of stunting and extreme poverty. By ensuring the availability and smooth distribution of nutritious food for families at risk of stunting, encouraging local governments to budget for the provision of biofortified rice in collaboration with Perum Bulog for families at risk of stunting.