Regent: Transmigration turns isolated areas in Sorong-West Papua into progress

The Regent of Sorong, West Papua Province, Johny Kamuru, said that the transmigration program has had its own impact on the progress of an area, especially isolated areas, which can then develop in the agricultural sector.

"Transmigration is a driving force for equitable distribution of welfare due to the imbalance of population with employment opportunities in each region, therefore the past government strategy has started to have a positive impact until now," he said in Sorong, Tuesday.

He said that the transmigration program, which is now 71 years old, could not be separated from the idea of ​​the first President of the Republic of Indonesia Soekarno, where this also absorbed from the colonial activities of European countries which brought in citizens from colonized countries to become workers.

"However, Soekarno's program is more for equal distribution of the population as well as encouraging increased welfare in destination transmigration locations," he said.
 
The government's national program to reduce population density on the island of Java to other regions in Indonesia in transmigration, he said, had brought its own impact to the progress of Sorong Regency.

He said that in terms of transmigration, President Soekarno actually adopted the previous Dutch colonial program in which the colonized people were sent to work in the destination area, which had forest products.

"We see now that the transmigration areas have become sub-districts and even districts, and this can indeed be seen from the distribution of the population," he said

After 71 years of the transmigration program, he said, the central government no longer carried out transmigration activities, therefore based on the decision of the Minister of Villages for Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration, he issued a decree Number 106 of 2018 concerning the placement of transmigration areas (PKT).

"The new transmigration paradigm is the revitalization of the transmigration area as a new growth center towards transmigration in the digital era," he said.

The central government under the leadership of President Joko Widodo ordered the Village Minister of PDTT to issue Decree Number 106 of 2018 concerning the placement of a transmigration area in which Sorong Regency was selected from 100 priority areas designated by the ministry to become a transmigration revitalization area, said Johny Kamuru.

SOURCE : https://www.antaranews.com/berita/2584249/bupati-transmigration-ubah-area-isolated-di-sorong-papua-barat-maju