President Jokowi Asks for Inputs from People’s Economic Congress

President Jokowi opens the 2017 People’s Economic Congress at Grand Sahid Jaya Hotel, Jakarta, on Saturday (22/4)

President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo admitted that due to his regular working visits to rural areas, he knows what the underprivileged want, including the farmers, fish-pond fishermen, and small fishermen; they want to get better national economy.

“Therefore, the Government issued economic equity policy which covers assets redistribution and agrarian reform, as well as partnership,” President Jokowi said in the 2017 People’s Economic Congress at Grand Sahid Jaya Hotel, Jakarta, on Saturday (22/4).

Regarding assets redistribution and agrarian reform, the President mentioned that there are 126 million hectares of land in Indonesia but the number of certified lands only reached 46 million hectares. That means there are more than sixty percent of those to be certified.

According to the President, many lands in rural areas are not certified because the people do not have money to apply for the certificate. The other reason is that those lands are located in certain positions that are not supposed to be residential area or arable land.

Currently, the President added, the Government has obtained 21.7 million hectares of land, including 12.7 million hectares of forest land, there are also 9 million land to be redistributed to the people.

However, President Jokowi reminded that assets redistribution and agrarian reform do not means that the Government gives lands to the people. “I do not want if the Government gives land to the people, but they sell it to other people,” the President firmly said.

Regarding the redistribution scheme, the President wanted it to be discussed in a detail manner. President Jokowi asserted that the Government must know whether the land to be redistributed will have productive value or not. The land should not be abandoned or sold. “That must not happen,” the President said.

For that reason, President Jokowi underlined that the scheme must be productive for the people, ummah (community), and all of us so that it will shorten the gap and inequality.

President Jokowi asked the People’s Economic Congress to discuss redistribution in detail and in depth. Thus, the Government can receive detailed, concrete, and real inputs to immediately decide and implement the assets redistribution and distribute them to the ummah (community), the people, cooperatives, and Islamic boarding schools.

Regarding the partnership, President Jokowi admitted that he had delegated several ministers to talk with major business players and ask them to partner with micro, small, and medium business players in a mutually beneficial partnership. However, it must be conducted under one condition, which is the big business should gain small profit, while micro business should gain big profit.

“I will not only ask them, but pressure them to do it since it related to a huge partnership which will bring benefit to the people,” the President firmly said.

Therefore, President Jokowi asked Chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) K.H. Makruf Amin to discuss and formulate it into inputs that will be used by the Government to order, decide, and implement the partnership.

“We will connect the person, and link certain product to certain enterprise. That are what we want to do,” the President added.

President Jokowi asserted that the Government is still waiting for the inputs from the People’s Economic Congress, for the benefit of the nation, people, and ummah.

Also attending the event were Chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) K.H. Makruf Amin, a number of Ulemas (Islamic scholars), Coordinating Minister for the Economy Darmin Nasution, Minister of State Secretary Pratikno, and Presidential Chief of Staff Teten Masduki. (DND/OJI/ES) (RA/EP/YM/Naster)