Indonesian Minister Talks Of Rural Development In South Korea

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Indonesian Minister for Rural Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Marwan Jafar will be a speaker at the Global Saemaul Leadership Forum (GSLF) 2015, being held in South Korea from November 24 to 27, 2015.

"The cooperation across nations needs to be improved. The GSLF, involving 48 countries, discusses sustainable rural development strategies in the world, including Indonesia. In 2015, rural areas are the basis of national development," Marwan Jafar said in a press release received by Antara here on Wednesday.

The GSLF aims at sharing the spirit of developing the world as a global village and seeking a sustainable development strategy, Marwan remarked.

The villages in Indonesia, according to him, have great opportunities to be the basis of national development. More than 74,000 villages have special characteristics and different natural potentials. In the agrarian sector, Indonesia has agricultural land and plantations that could be cultivated for food security.

"Moreover, in the tourism sector, village communities are ready to welcome tourists," he noted.

Indonesia adopted the concept of Saemaul Undong since 2008 in Yogyakarta, especially in the Gunung Kidul district.

"This concept has the same spirit as Indonesia's Rural Act which gives large space to the village to bring about a change," the minister said.

During the meeting, Marwan Jafar presented cooperation programs related to rural development. Among these are human resources capacity building programs, and those related to cooperation in rural development using community development models, such as  Saemaul Undong (New Village Movement). (WDY)