Jakarta, Nov 26 (ANTARA News) - President Joko Widodo stressed the importance of micro economic empowerment in addition to infrastructure development and simplification of permits.

"We develop micro economy. The government provides an interest-rate subsidy of seven percentage points to the micro-loan program," Joko Widodo said here on Monday.

In addition, the government also established 30 micro-waqf banks in various Islamic boarding schools.

Meanwhile, Indonesia ranked 72nd out of 190 countries in the 2018 Ease of Doing Business (EODB) index.

"We also want to reduce inequality and poverty. The gini coefficient decreased from 0.41 to 0.38," the president said.

The rate of poverty is 9.82 percent (as of March 2018), which is below 10 percent for the first time.

"It is not easy to achieve that," the president said.

The government also established Family Hope Program (PKH), Healthy Indonesia Card (KIS), and Smart Indonesia Card (KIP).

"The government also provides village funds to improve the welfare of rural communities. Until now, the government disburses Rp187 trillion for village funds," the president said.

The government also continues to develop Human Resources.

"We must guarantee the growth of children. We have a program to reduce stunting," the president said.

Based on data from the Health Ministry, 28.9 percent of children under five years old were stunted in 2014. This figure increased in 2015 to 29 percent but decreased in 2016 to 27.5 percent. In 2017, this figure increased to 29.6 percent.

Reporter: Antara
Editor: Eliswan Azly
Copyright © ANTARA 2018