Visiting Semarang, Minister of Social Affairs Expects KPM to be Prosperous with Entrepreneurs

SEMARANG (February 14th 2020) - The Ministry of Social Affairs continues to strive to alleviate poverty. One of the cities with the lowest poverty rate of all cities in Indonesia is Semarang City with a percentage of 3.98%. According to the Minister of Social Affairs (Mensos) Juliari P Batubara, this figure is still far from the national poverty rate of 9.22%.

During a working visit of the Minister of Social Affairs with the Director General of Poverty Handling (Dirjen PFM), Andi ZA Dulung in the context of Distribution of the 2020 Staple Food Program Social Assistance to an electronic mutual cooperation workshop for the Mandiri Jaya joint venture group (e-warong KUBE) in Bojongsalaman Village, West Semarang Regency, The Minister of Social Affairs said that although the poverty rate was relatively low, the poverty rate must still be suppressed.

Minister of Social Affairs hopes that if he visits the city of Semarang again, the Beneficiary Families (KPM) will not receive assistance but the KPM must be prosperous. To be prosperous is done with entrepreneurial strategies for KPM. For KPMs who have good and capable entrepreneurs, they can apply for financing through banks, government programs, and Mekaar's National Madani Capital (PNM).

"The Ministry of Social Affairs was given the task by the President to provide temporary assistance for underprivileged people but besides that, it also helps or strives for empowerment so that the economy of the KPM will be better," explained the Minister of Social Affairs.

Furthermore, the Director General of PFM during the visit explained the Basic Food Program. According to him, it was not easy to raise the index for the amount of aid from IDR 110 thousand to IDR 150 thousand because it had to adjust the budget. "However, it is the Minister's commitment to run in accordance with the President's directive that the index of the amount of aid is IDR 150 thousand per KPM per month," explained the Director General of PFM.

In this regard, the Director General of PFM reports the number of Food Aid beneficiaries in Central Java Province as many as 4,183,935 spread across 35 Regencies / Cities. For the city of Semarang until 2020 as many as 41,326 KPM valued at Rp. 6,198,900,000 (six billion one hundred ninety eight million nine hundred thousand Rupiah) per month or Rp. 74,386,800,000, - (seventy four billion three hundred eighty six million eight hundred thousand Rupiah) for 12 months.

In this activity, there were 1000 KPM recipients of food social assistance for the Basic Food program from West Semarang District. The number of e-warongs in Semarang is 255, consisting of 60 KUBE e-warongs, 174 agents BNI 46 and 21 RPKs. For West Semarang sub-district, there are 30 e-warongs consisting of 5 KUBE e-warongs, 24 agents BNI 46 and 1 RPK. The human resources of Semarang City Staple Food Assistance Facilitators are 18 people consisting of 1 Supervisor, 1 Kortex / Korda person and 16 District Food Social Assistance Social Facilitators.

Furthermore, in this activity, the Director General of PFM together with the Minister of Social Affairs visited the e-Warong KUBE Mandiri Jaya. The Director General of PFM reminded the managers of e-Warong that other foodstuffs in the form of fruit sold in e-warong are made to make efforts to sell local fruits. "If the local fruit is sold, the profit from the sale can be enjoyed by the surrounding community," explained the Director General of PFM. In addition, the e-Warong Mandiri Jaya visited also provided rice, eggs, catfish, chicken, pears, tofu, tempeh, green beans and vegetables.