By: Teuku Rahman
The Aneuk Muda Aceh Excellent and Great (AMANAH) program was able to make the export activities of superior local products in the region nicknamed Veranda of Mecca a success by developing the creativity of the youth there.
The existence of the AMANAH program initiated by the State Intelligence Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (BIN RI) has clearly had a truly extraordinary impact on the Aceh economy, especially for improving the quality and competitiveness of young human resources (HR), especially regarding the creativity of local youth.
So that when the creativity of young people is able to be honed optimally, they can make or create a variety of superior local products from Aceh so that it will bring exchange power or high prices to further support the export activities of local products in their region. Everything can be carried out more optimally thanks to BIN’s support through the realization of the AMANAH Program.
The Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) continues to encourage young people, including Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Aceh, to focus more on developing various local products so they can penetrate the export market.
According to Middle Trade Analyst, Directorate General of Market Development and Export Information, Ministry of Trade Hadimi Hasyim, currently the potential for export activities through various kinds of local MSME products in Aceh is very large, it is just a matter of how business actors and young people can utilize these existing resources.
Because there are actually a lot of products available, so in the future young people and business people will focus on managing or developing these products, for example patchouli, so don’t just stop at patchouli, but also have to produce other finished products.
Moreover, actually becoming an exporter is not difficult now, it all depends on the will and desire of each party because the government clearly provides full support so that local MSME products can penetrate the export market.
The government, in this case the Ministry of Trade, has also collaborated with various other related institutions and associations throughout Indonesia to collect various quality and export-worthy products.
Not only the Government of the Republic of Indonesia, but BIN has also shown its strong commitment in fully supporting the improvement of Aceh’s economy, namely by realizing the AMANAH Program which is able to make export activities of the superior local products of Rencong State a success.
Director of the Directorate of Business and Sustainable Funds at Syiah Kuala University (USK) and expert on Aceh patchouli, Dr. Syaifullah Muhammad revealed that the initiation program of the institution led by Police General (Ret.) Prof. Dr. Budi Gunawan together with the Atsiri Research Center (ARC) continue to collaborate directly in empowering local young people.
The main focus in this empowerment is on processing superior local products which are able to bring many benefits to society at large, so that later these products can sell on the market and even have an impact on the economy of Acehnese youth.
In this case, Syiah Kuala University (USK) succeeded in carrying out an innovation process from upstream to downstream on local products in the form of Acehnese patchouli through ARC based on the needs of the community, especially patchouli farmers.
For your information, Aceh itself is one of the best quality patchouli oil producers in the world. The area of patchouli fields in Rencong State reaches 1,212 hectares, of which 871 hectares are patchouli areas that have been successfully harvested.
The success of export activities from a region also depends greatly on the quality of young human resources (HR) in that location. So, in this case, according to BPPW Aceh Commitment Making Officer (PPK) Agung Jadi Prakoso, the construction of the AMANAH Building aims to be a forum for developing and increasing the capacity of Aceh’s human resources.
Not only in one field, but in the Aneuk Muda Aceh Superior and Great Program, these young people will receive a lot of guidance in various fields at once, such as creative fields, research and technology, entrepreneurship, creative industries, education, literacy, culture. and language.
The quality of the construction of the AMANAH Building has also received very serious attention, as the Director General of Human Settlements of the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR), Ir. Diana Kusumastuti said that building contractors needed to increase the number of their workers by up to 200 more people.
This is so that the target time for project completion can be met well, while on the other hand we also pay attention to the specifications and technical aspects of project construction, so that the sturdiness and reliability of the building can be tested and function as required.
With all BIN’s seriousness in building the AMANAH Building, making it one of the causes of success will increase export activities of Aceh’s superior local products by utilizing the creativity of local youth.
*) Acehnese students live in Semarang