By: Gusti Arkananda) *
Technological advances must be utilized for the welfare of the people, including the majority of people living in rural areas. This is in line with the political will of the government of President Joko Widodo, namely to develop rural areas for the welfare of rural communities. This determination must be in line with the expectation that the 2020 Draft State Budget must reduce poverty. In this connection, village funds and capital assistance for micro, small and medium entrepreneurs must be right on target. Access to capital for the poor must be wide open. High poverty disparities between urban and rural areas must be reduced, because the majority of the poor are in the village, and a portion of it is in the agricultural sector.
Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency, poverty in Indonesia as of March 2019 amounted to 9.41 percent or as many as 25.14 million people. The poverty level in rural areas is 12.85 percent, almost twice that of urban areas which is 6.69 percent. Inequality in urban areas is higher than in rural areas because of the gap in access to deep capital. This can be overcome by strengthening the use of digital technology that opens access to capital for anyone. Digital technology can also overcome inequality and rural poverty.
Village funds and digital technology can be optimized to overcome inequality and poverty because they can open access to capital and employment opportunities that affect the poor. Increasing the quantity and quality of employment can more sustain well-being than the subsidy or assistance approach. These include the use of village funds for labor-intensive programs, such as the construction of village roads and agricultural irrigation. The program is very useful, especially outside the planting and harvesting period of agriculture or plantations. In addition to building infrastructure, village funds can also be used to empower rural institutions, and, more importantly, the program is far more educational and good for fostering community character so that they are not spoiled and depend on subsidies or government or third party assistance.
) * The author is an observer of socio-economic problems
