NTT governor starts term with focus on poverty

Yemris Fointuna ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Kupang   |  Fri, 07/18/2008 11:17 AM  |  The Archipelago

On his first day in office, East Nusa Tenggara Governor Frans Leburaya met with regents, mayors and other high-ranking local officials to discuss steps for alleviating poverty and improving the quality of education in the underdeveloped province.

Frans was sworn in as governor, and Esthon Foennay as deputy governor, by Home Minister Mardiyanto on Wednesday. Their term ends in 2013.

While campaigning, Frans said fighting poverty would be his top priority if elected.

Chief spokesman for the provincial government, Eduard Gana, said following the three-hour meeting that all regional heads and other officials in attendance agreed to build a joint database of low-income people and education problems.

Once the database is complete, they will be able to draft adequate budgets and policies for addressing these two problems.

"The governor wants the province and all the regions to have similar data on the number of poor families and on the education problems in the province, to avoid confusing the public and to allow the provincial government and all local governments to design appropriate strategies for approaching the problems," Eduard said.

He said the data on poverty presented by the previous governor was quite different from the number of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

"According to the provincial government's data, the number of poor people in the province is only 1.16 million, or 27.58 percent of the 4.8 million population. According to the BPS, the number of cash aid recipients in the province has reached 70 percent of the population," he said.

Eduard said the administration would allocate soft loans for low-income people and provide skill training as well as free medication. It will also provide free education for people.

The new governor has not said how much these programs will cost or how they will be paid for.

Thursday's meeting also discussed state company PT Semen Kupang, in which the East Nusa Tenggara owns a 13 percent share.

Eduard questioned the closure of the company last May and the dismissal of its 300 workers, who only received 50 percent of their salaries as severance pay.

The administration hopes the company will reopen and hire back the workers.

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