The West Lombok regency administration has set aside a Village Allocation Fund of Rp 250 million (US$25,000) for each of the 88 villages throughout West Lombok to bring the program to fruition by 2010.

West Lombok Regent Zaini Arony told The Jakarta Post recently that his office had provided counselling to a number of villages for the OVOP program, known in West Lombok as the One Kampong One Product (OKOP) program. The provincial administration is currently making an inventory of the potential of each village.

"The OVOP program, we call it the OKOP, aims to enable villages here to be self-sufficient. People's empowerment programs should be rooted in the villages," he said.

Zaini said each provincial working unit (SKPD) involved in evaluating village's potential in accordance to its ability had been given the task of village counsellor.

He said a village which had potential in the marine and fishery sector would be trained by the Maritime and Fisheries Office, a village with potential in handicrafts would be trained by the Trade and Industry Office and a village with tourism potential be trained by the Culture and Tourism Office.

He said, for example, Babakan village in Gerung district would be encouraged to become a salted egg producer. "Farmers, who currently make salted eggs as a sideline, could develop it into an industry in the village."

Salted eggs - made from duck eggs from Babakan village - have been sold for years in local markets in Mataram and East Lombok. Farmers often could not meet market demand because of their low production.

"We have deployed officers from the Industry and Trade Agency to supervise the farmers to increase quality and production," Zaini said, adding that the regency would only supervise the farmers, while the finance would be handled by the village institutions.

As well as Babakan, there are currently 44 villages - half of all villages in West Lombok - applying the OVOP program.

He said his administration was also revitalizing the Village Community Learning Center (PKBM) as a center for community empowerment.

"West Lombok has 300 PKBMs, one in almost every hamlet. We would like to revitalize them."

His administration had organized technical officers to be deployed to the villages and help village heads manage their finances, explaining that financial supervision was important as the villages had received huge funds from regional and state budgets.

Zaini disclosed that the 88 villages in the regency had received the Village Allocation Fund, worth Rp 80 million ($8,000) to Rp 125 million each this year.

"In fact, it is not enough. We should increase it to Rp 250 million each next year because there are so many programs in the villages," he said.

Zaini, officially installed in April this year along with Deputy Regent H. Mahrib, hoped that the central government could help more with real projects for villages, such as building roads, bridges, and community health centers.

"Instead of conducting seminars and meetings, the government should build roads, schools and health centers in the villages. Real regional autonomy is actually in the villages," he said.

"If we allocated more funds for real development in the villages, we would see more a progressive Indonesia," Zaini added.

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