TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
RI, Canada team up to improve regencies
The government is seeking help from its Canadian counterpart to provide regencies across Indonesia with better capacity and competitiveness in developing their own economies according to their local strengths
Change Size
T
he government is seeking help from its Canadian counterpart to provide regencies across Indonesia with better capacity and competitiveness in developing their own economies according to their local strengths.
The project, called the National Support for Local Investment Climates (NSLIC)/National Support for Enhancing Local and Regional Development (NSELRED), is aimed at encouraging innovations at the local level as stipulated in the 2015-2019 National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN).
For local farmers in Tabanan regency in Bali, the partnership will offer them innovative solutions to ensure that their production of natural-based commodities gain wider access in the market, so that there would be better economic results in the future.
The regency has four leading commodities, namely nira (a sap obtained from tapping inflorescences of various palms to make sugar), coffee, salak and coconut.
Aside from gaining technical expertise from the project, farmers could increase their capacity during the harvesting process, said Ida Bagus Wiratmaja, the regency’s head of research and development.
“[Under the program], the farmers will have to process their harvest into products, which will be bought by village-owned enterprises and regional-owned companies afterward,” he said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Tabanan regency was one of the recipients of funds from the Canadian government, along with Central Maluku regency in Maluku, Pinrang regency in South Sulawesi, Kubu Raya regency in West Kalimantan, East Lombok regency in West Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and Banyuwangi regency in East Java.
The funding program, called the Responsive Innovation Fund (RIF), is designed to enable those regencies to become “champions” in managing the tourism and agribusiness sectors, which are their areas of expertise, so that they can be examples for their counterparts.
This year marks the first time the RIF program has provided support to the selected regencies for a three-year term. The six regencies may present their innovation proposals to apply for technical assistance.
Each regency will be eligible to receive technical assistance worth Rp 1 billion (US$72,669) a year from the NSLIC/NSELRED.
Sharon Armstrong, the Canadian Embassy’s director and counsellor of development for Indonesia and ASEAN, said the objective of the partnership between the two governments was to create more job opportunities, raise incomes of poor people and alleviate poverty.
