Parigi Moutong regency, young but determined

National News - March 05, 2007

Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Parigi Moutong

Once part of Donggala regency in Central Sulawesi, Parigi Moutong regency will mark its fifth anniversary as an autonomous province on April 10 with a pledge to make the region the most developed in the province by 2020.

Considering its abundant resources, the regency, which surrounds Tomini Bay, will not find it hard to reach the goal, but problems posed by poverty might get in the way. From the regency's 371,204 residents, 27,000 families still lived under the poverty line.

According to the Marine and Fishery Office the regency stretched along 472 kilometers of coastline, from Sausu district in the south to Moutong district in the north.

With a fishing area that spanned 28,208 square km, the regency has the potential to harvest 587,250 tons of fish annually, excluding those caught from its 4,000 hectares of ponds, which were managed by both tradition and modern-day means.

With economic growth recorded at 5,98 percent, the regency also boasts various agricultural products, including chocolate, with 54,345 tones produced annually from plantations spanning 45,120 ha, coconuts, of which 40,757 tones was produced annually on some 24,500 ha of land and cloves, of which 421,751 tons were produced annually from plantations spanning 2,166 ha.

With its rich resources, poverty should be non-existent in the regency, especially considering that the marine and agriculture sectors were managed by residents and not by outside investors.

Parigi Moutong Regent Longky Djanggola said the marine sector was mostly managed by the natives of Bugis in South Sulawesi and Chinese Indonesians, while plantations were predominantly owned by Balinese and Javanese natives.

"The Balinese and Javanese previously arrived in the regency under transmigration programs, but now they have made their roots here," Longky said.

He said a majority of the regency's poor were natives, who have been lulled by the area's rich resources.

But Longky said he refused to let the economic gap remain, believing it could trigger social jealousy and fresh problems. "The poor residents should be empowered," he said.

Utilizing this spirit, the regency administration joined hands with the offices of the Coordinating Ministry for the People's Welfare and the United Nations Development Program in 2005 to implement the Millennium Development Goals program for the region by preparing plans to reduce poverty there.

Longky believed that in order to alleviate poverty, the poor would have to be involved in the programs so they could learn the true nature of the problems at hand. "It turned out that the poor residents actively involved themselves with us to find programs that they thought were of the utmost priority to them," he said.

Following discussions and meetings with the poor residents, it was discovered that one of the real problems they faced was a lack of capital to initiate potential money-making activities.

To remedy this, the administration placed a Rp 2.5 billion (US$271,739) guarantee in a bank for the poor. "The money is intended to allow poor residents to obtain interest-free loans," Longky said.

Since the loan scheme was launched, 1,180 people have applied for financing from the bank, borrowing between Rp 2.5 million and Rp 3.5 million each.

Head of Central Sulawesi Bank in Parigi Moutong, Wahidudin, said loan approvals were based on a proposal submitted by the applicant. The bank then records the debtor's loan repayments, which were anywhere between Rp 250,000 and Rp 500,000 each month.

Longky said that following good reports from the bank, the regency's legislative council agreed to place another Rp 2.5 billion in the bank this year for similar purposes. "The council has agreed and during the upcoming discussion on the regency's budget, the money will be included in the budget," he said.

Apart from providing interest-free loans, the regency administration has launched other poverty reduction programs, including a scheme to provide free medication to the poor and another to arrange the distribution of identification cards free of charge.

The regency earned the praise of the deputy Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare, Sujana Royat, who said its programs were the most effective of the five provinces made to pilot projects under the Millennium Development Goals program. The other four provinces involved were Aceh, Maluku, North Maluku and Papua.

As part of its vision to make the regency the most developed in the province, the administration has also insisted on implementing clean governance and boosting revenues, while increasing the people's participation in development with the goal of improving welfare, the economy and the environment.

With its strategic location and adequate infrastructure, and thanks to the presence of the Trans-Sulawesi highway passing through its six districts, the regency has a chance to develop at a greater pace. The highway has allowed the administration to focus on providing a means of transportation to its more remote areas in order to open up isolated locations and provide easy economic access.

Longky said that the administration had also launched a program to provide better housing for the poor. Last year, 300 houses were built for villagers living in mountain ranges.

"In the 2007 budget we will propose to implement a housing program for the poor in the city, as well as construct roads to production sites."***