The Indonesia implementation of national policy for rural community to business development in banyumas regency central Java Province

Abstract

One of the alternatives, the national program for rural community empowerment was regarded the most effective way by the government of Banyumas Regency. The implementation of the program in extending credit had hit the accurate target, but was not successful in terms of opening new employment and increasing the income of woman’s business groups because of relatively small amount of entrepreneurial loan, relatively high interest of 17% per year, and short repayment period of 1 year. Poor traders encounter tight competition, lack of information, lack of skills and low motivation to thrive. As a supporting factor, the implementation of physical development was not effective because the poor as the target group were not involved much in development planning discussion represented by recognized local figures, representatives of several villages and village apparatuses who had authority to take the initiative for designing the program. The decision regarding the physical development was preferably designated for their own interest rather than the business orientation of poor housewives group in rural areas. In addition, low education and low social status of the poor business group cause the tendency to inferiority, which lead to be apathy and passiveness in planning and supervision of the rural community empowerment program.