Several villages have leveled up to become developed and self-sufficient villages, head of the ministry’s Development and Information Agency Ivanovich Agusta said at a webinar on the village and rural development road map on Monday.
It has been recorded that the number of highly underdeveloped villages declined from 13,453 in 2015 to 4,982 in 2022. Likewise, the number of underdeveloped villages fell from 33,592 to 9,584.
Meanwhile, the number of developing villages increased from 22,882 to 33,902, the number of developed villages rose from 3,608 to 20,249, and the number of self-sufficient villages swelled from 174 to 6,238.
Agusta further pointed out that economic inequality in villages remained low as the village budget was prioritized for poverty reduction during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, their Gini index (economic inequality) declined from 0.320 in 2019 to 0.315 in 2021 and 0.314 in 2022.
However, Agusta said that infrastructure development in villages slowed down since the focus of village budget utilization shifted to poverty handling.
For instance, asphalt roads were constructed in 6,907 villages during the 2014–2018 period, he said. Then, in the period from 2018–2021, such roads were built in only 4,851 villages.
Even though infrastructure development in villages slowed, the digital economy in villages improved, as shown by the data on logistics services that entered villages, according to Agusta.
In 2014–2018, logistics services only reached 4,099 villages, he noted. Meanwhile, in 2018–2021, the number increased to 5,829.
"The digital economy has made the logistics sector in a number of villages improve," he said.
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Translator: Zubi Mahrofi, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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