Realizing the Downstreaming of Local Aceh Products, the AMANAH Program is Able to Overcome the Economic Recession
By : Ramzi Harli )*
The Aneuk Muda Aceh Excellent and Great (AMANAH) program continues to strive to realize downstream local products in Aceh, thereby being able to help overcome the economic recession.
The downstreaming of every local product owned by regions in Indonesia is indeed one of the goals that the Government of the Republic of Indonesia (RI) continues to strive for. President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) then instructed the State Intelligence Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (BIN RI) to initiate the AMANAH program.
It cannot be denied that with a nation’s success in downstreaming their superior local products, they will become producers and not be trapped in the hole of global consumerism so that they are easily manipulated by more developed countries.
When a nation is able to become a producer even at the international level by carrying out export activities on local products or in other words carrying out downstreaming, then of course that country is one step further ahead than before. So with the large number of export activities carried out, especially as the goods sent to the world stage are superior local products from the region, it will clearly be very helpful in efforts to overcome the economic recession and make the region’s economy at least much more resistant to various shocks.
Head of the Research and Development Center (Kapuslitbang) of the State Intelligence Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (BIN RI), Dr Armi Susandi said that his party has plans to further develop an agro-industrial system for various commodities in Aceh including patchouli through information technology. The reason is, information technology can clearly be used to help society in a much more optimal way, whether in the context of utilizing IT upstream or downstream of the agro-industrial chain.
By estimating climate characteristics through information technology, it will be very helpful for farmers in carrying out the process of cultivating patchouli as a superior local product in Rencong Country in its downstream efforts.
Likewise, the Chairman of DAS BIN, Lieutenant General TNI (Ret.) Dr. Muhammad Munir also admitted that his party received a task directly from President Jokowi to help the economy in Aceh by empowering the millennial generation so that they could have superior and great education.
When they learned of this request from the Head of State, the State Intelligence Agency immediately took follow-up action by contacting the Aceh Government and other related parties including Syiah Kuala University (USK) to prepare training and guidance for the youth with innovations of various kinds. product from patchouli oil.
Meanwhile, Head of the Atsiri Research Center of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Science and Technology (ARC-PUIPT) Aceh Patchouli, Syiah Kuala University (USK), Syaifullah Muhammad said that many parties have been very actively involved in developing innovation and downstreaming Aceh patchouli, including one of them is BIN through AMANAH Program.
Of course, with the implementation of the Aneuk Muda Aceh Excellent and Great program, it will become a forum for collaboration between several parties, including universities, government, business world, society and the media in improving patchouli derivative products in the Veranda of Mecca.
BIN runs the AMANAH Program by providing training to the younger generation to be able to produce and apply innovations to patchouli derivative products. They are all also trained to make packaging, branding and digital marketing of products so that downstreaming of superior local products in Aceh can be strengthened so that it will strengthen the community’s economy and create a new ecosystem that is much more independent.
Thanks to the implementation of the AMANAH program, Aceh’s patchouli oil no longer needs to be exported entirely because there is a new business ecosystem that can absorb patchouli oil at the local level and convert it into an end product to be sold directly in the country.
This independence is certainly a very good thing because it makes Aceh more resilient to the potential for an economic recession, even if it causes international purchasing power to decline. Even if, for example, a recession is occurring, this nation still has an alternative by developing its local products even more.
Discussing the importance of downstreaming in a nation’s economy so that the nation is able to withstand the possibility of a recession, according to the Head of the State Administration Institute (LAN), Adi Suryanto, currently one of Indonesia’s big agendas for progress under President Jokowi’s administration is carrying out downstreaming.
This is because downstreaming is going well, it is also a strategic step and an effort to increase investment in Indonesia. So, if it turns out that the world economy is hit by a global crisis or recession, it will not have an impact on Indonesia because it is able to transform by making its local products have high selling value or downstreaming, which efforts will run more optimally with the AMANAH Program.
* The author is a student at STKIP An-Nur Nanggroe Aceh
