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Non-cash social assistance to speed up poverty alleviation: Minister
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Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa (third from left) and Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman (third from right) attend a limited Cabinet meeting on social assistance at the Presidential Office in Jakarta on July 19. (Antara Foto/Yudhi Mahatma)
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ocial Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa has said the distribution of social assistance through an electronic system will speed up poverty alleviation in Indonesia.
She said with another program, namely e-Warong, poor people in the country could hopefully be more empowered. It was expected that E-Warong could boost the implementation the Family Hope Program (PKH), a social assistance program to build more prosperous Indonesian families, she added.
"Previously, we expected the PKH could be completed within five years. With e-Warong, we expect it can be completed in two years," Khofifah said in Jakarta on Thursday.
E-Warong is an official grocery store designed to serve social assistance beneficiaries, in which all commodities offered by the shop will be supplied by the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).
E-Warong is regarded as effective in empowering poor people because it will be supported by cooperatives, which will offer saving and loan facilities.
This is why the Social Affairs Ministry is optimistic the PKH can be completed sooner than its official schedule
In June, as many as 612,816 poor families across Indonesia received social assistance under the PKH. In total, there are 3 million PKH beneficiaries. The ministry said the number of PKH beneficiaries would increase to 6 million in November.
"We expect those 3 million PKH recipients can receive the benefits of the program through our non-cash delivery system next year," she said. (ebf)
