Bappenas -- in cooperation with the Indonesia-Australia government partnership, Kompak (Governance for Growth), and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade -- invited the businesses to visit several poverty-stricken areas to promote their potential by involving locals.

 “Through this forum, we will analyze what challenges are still an obstacle and what measures need to be taken. This is a form of empowerment through collaboration between all parties to help people create an independent community and to significantly lower the poverty [rate],” Vivi Yulaswati, the agency’s director of poverty reduction and social welfare, said in a statement.

She added that the government had also involved startups in the initiative and invited them to visit relatively poor areas to explore their potential to promote them to a larger market. These areas, Vivi said, had much potential to explore, such as agriculture, tourism and handicrafts.

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the number of people living below the bread line was 26.58 million in September last year, or 10.12 percent of the total population.

Bappenas head Bambang Brodjonegoro said the government planned to lower the poverty rate to below 10 percent this year. (dwa)

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