Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Regional Leaders Must Help Solve People’s Problems in the Field: President
Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on government officials in the regions to meet people personally in the field to help them solve the various problems they are facing, including poverty.

"I want the leaders of regional administrations to meet people in the field and to supervise efforts to improve the people’s welfare. This is a responsibility to the people who elected them directly, including the president and vice president," Yudhoyono said at a national meeting on the People’s National Empowerment Program (PNPM) here on Wednesday.

The president said the funds that had been allocated for poverty alleviation should not be rendered useless merely because of mismanagement by local officials who lacked correct knowledge of problems in the field.

Yudhoyono said he had received reports on how people’s empowerment programs were carried out, acknowledging that some of the programs had run well but others were not yet optimal.

"We have been increasing the amounts of funds for people’s empowerment programs. Unfortunately, some of them did not meet the targets," he said.

He said the government allocated Rp19 trillion in 2004, Rp24 trillion in 2005, Rp41 trillion in 2006, Rp51 trillion in 2007 and Rp58 trillion in 2008.

"I made a lot of visits to the regions during my first two years in office to grasp real conditions in the field so that we could adopt correct policies," he said.

As a result, the president said, the people’s empowerment program was synchronized in 55 projects under the auspices of 19 ministries.

On the occasion, the president also asked people who ran small and medium scale businesses to utilize the government’s people’s credit scheme.

"I hope that small businesses will continue to grow and get guidance in the future. The government will provide Rp1.4 trillion, and if a guarantee is included it will reach up to Rp20 trillion. Banks are expected to extend credits to small businesses," the president said.

He said the government had provided a total of Rp3.5 trillion since the small-business credit scheme was launched in 2007.