Gusti Ayu, popularly known as Bintang Puspayoga, said she visited Mansinam Island to observe the progress in the intervention conducted by the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection in realizing a village that is friendly to women and children.
"There are two main agendas for my visit to West Papua this time, i.e., to see firsthand the Mansinam Village as one of the models for a woman-friendly village that cares for children developed by the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection in West Papua and to attend the invitation to the National Women's Meeting of the Indonesian Bible Christian Fellowship Church (GPKAI)," she noted in Manokwari on Tuesday.
The minister is optimistic that the GPKAI women's national meeting, which will be held at the Erikson Tritt Manokwari Theological High School, can be a source of inspiration for other women in West Papua to become more empowered.
"Women are not only the object of development but must also be the subject, who will determine the development," Puspayoga stated.
Darmawati visited Mansinam Island in the company of Regional Secretary of West Papua Nathaniel Mandacan.
After completing the two agendas, Minister Puspayoga is scheduled to return to Jakarta on Tuesday afternoon.
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Women play a crucial role in ensuring the resilience of the nation’s families and the country's economy, the Cooperatives and SMEs Ministry had earlier stated.
Based on data from Statistics Indonesia in 2021, some 64.5 percent of the total MSMEs were micro-scaled enterprises managed by women.
"As many as 64.2 million MSMEs, or around 99 percent of MSMEs, are micro-enterprises that contribute 61.07 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP), 60.4 percent to investment, and 14.3 percent to exports," Deputy for Entrepreneurship at the Cooperatives and SMEs Ministry Siti Azizah stated at the kick-off of AKSI (Business Acceleration) for Women held by Stellar Women and Tjufoo here on Thursday.
The government intends to increase the number of SMEs to strengthen the nation’s economic structure. One of the measures they took was to encourage 30 million MSMEs to adopt the digital ecosystem.
Data from August 2022 indicated that as many as 20.24 million MSME players, or 31.1 percent of MSMEs, had used e-commerce platforms.
"To improve the quality of business players, an entrepreneurial spirit is needed to create (good) character, so that they could conduct a process towards success supported by an integrated ecosystem," Azizah remarked.
The government also promoted the development of national entrepreneurship, as listed in Presidential Regulation Number 2 of 2022. The development of women entrepreneurs was one of the five focuses of the national entrepreneurship development goals.
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Translator: Tri Adi S, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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