"Through the Village Law, village governments can now independently manage their natural and cultural potentials, which were used to be monopolized by external actors," the PDTT Ministry's Director for Development of Village Facilities and Infrastructures Nursaidi stated in Padang, West Sumatra, on Sunday.
Nursaidi made the statement while briefing the participants of a national youth conference with the theme "Cultural Collaboration in the Expedition for Villages in Hidden Paradise", which was held by Andalas University.
Prior to the existence of the law, it was rare to find rural communities and governments managing their own villages' potential in the tourism sector, he noted.
He added that the enactment of the Village Law then drastically changed the situation, as it provided rural communities and governments with an equal opportunity, akin to that wielded by district,municipal, and provincial governments, to independently manage the assets and potentials of their respective regions.
Moreover, people and apparatus in villages can now tap into their villages' tangible and intangible assets that have high tourism value, such as forests, beaches, rivers, ancient buildings, traditional arts, batik production technology, and village cultural sites.
"The Village Law can optimally function as a legal basis as long as villages are willing and capable of translating the assets' social and economic values into village revenues," he affirmed.
He also elaborated that related stakeholders should take comprehensive and integrated measures according to the needs of the villagers, based on microdata collected in villages, in order to develop and empower communities in rural areas.
Furthermore, he explained that efforts to develop villages must be made by upholding the principle that no one should be left behind, so that everyone will be able to enjoy the benefits of the development process.
To that end, since 2021, the PDTT Ministry has been using relevant points of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a reference for accelerating the sustainable development of villages, he pointed out.
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Translator: M. Zulfikar, Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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