Surabaya, E Java (ANTARA) - Alleviating poverty and unemployment in Surabaya City, East Java, involves the participation of public and private universities, Surabaya Mayor Eri Cahyadi stated here on Saturday.

"The government will never be able to solve the problems of poverty and unemployment if it does not synergize with universities," Cahyadi explained.

The Surabaya mayor affirmed that the ideas for eliminating poverty and unemployment in the city were the result of discussions with rectors and professors from the city's public and private universities.

Cahyadi affirmed that his side had been invited by the Ministry of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform to sign a joint commitment to launch the "Thematic Bureaucratic Reform for Poverty Handling" at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) on Friday (October 21).

"Surabaya is an example by other regions because of the bureaucratic reforms applied by the Surabaya City Government in alleviating poverty," he pointed out.

One of the actualizations of the poverty and unemployment alleviation program by the city government is the Labor Intensive Program by involving people from the low-income group to manage some of the city's assets to earn additional income.

The Surabaya city government also remains committed to accelerating economic recovery through the empowerment of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and involving low-income people to manage tourism areas.

"We trained one hundred low-income people to manage the (tourism) area. Traders there can get a turnover reaching Rp7 million on weekends. We give all the results to the community, and this is where the government is present to be the facilitator," he stated.

Furthermore, Cahyadi highlighted the city's achievements in alleviating poverty and unemployment to the participants of "Professor Summit IV Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS)" on Friday evening.

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Translator: Abdul H, Kenzu
Editor: Sri Haryati
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