JAKARTA – The Ministry of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions (Kemendes PDT) stands ready to collaborate with the Coordinating Ministry for Community Empowerment, the Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency (PPN/Bappenas), and line ministries/agencies to ensure the Golden Indonesia 2045 vision is successfully realized.

A primary driver of this initiative is community empowerment that positions citizens as active subjects who shape strategic directions, planning, oversight, and evaluation processes.

Minister of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions (Mendes PDT) Yandri Susanto stated that beyond empowerment, continuous mentoring supported by clear policy mapping from Kemendes PDT and technical ministries remains crucial to freeing communities from poverty while fostering self-reliance and prosperity.

"In accordance with President Prabowo's 6th Asta Cita pillar—Building from the Villages and Grassroots to Achieve Economic Equity and Poverty Eradication—the two core keywords are empowerment and structured mentoring. Pursuing empowerment without ongoing mentoring will yield sub-optimal results, whereas providing mentoring without empowerment will fail to drive community-led initiatives," Minister Yandri stated during the National Dialogue on Empowerment themed Transformative Steps in Community Empowerment Toward Golden Indonesia 2045 at the Coordinating Ministry for Community Empowerment Office, Jakarta, on Wednesday (October 14, 2026).

"All economic progress relies on community empowerment to effectively break the cycle of poverty. Therefore, we fully endorse the national community empowerment framework and stand ready to collaborate," Minister Yandri added.

With the timeline to achieve Golden Indonesia 2045 narrowing, multi-faceted approaches must be executed swiftly. Rural residents—who account for over 70 percent of Indonesia's total population—require prioritized policy focus, including the elimination of disadvantaged and severely disadvantaged status across regions and the enhancement of human resource quality.

The Minister of PPN/Head of Bappenas emphasized that the spearhead of national empowerment lies within rural communities. Village populations must act as primary drivers, ensuring equal developmental attention from Aceh to Papua to secure Golden Indonesia 2045.

"We will ensure that from Aceh to Papua, our communities are empowered," affirmed Minister of PPN/Head of Bappenas Rachmat Pambudy.

Poverty across remote regions must be eradicated through sustainable solutions rather than one-off, consumptive social assistance packages. Cross-sector empowerment and continuous mentoring represent a long-term government investment capable of delivering broad, lasting impacts, as reiterated by Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment Muhaimin Iskandar.

"Every citizen will be empowered to live a self-reliant, high-quality life, every enterprise will have room to scale up, poverty will be eradicated across all corners of the nation, and the middle class will prosper sustainably," Coordinating Minister Muhaimin Iskandar concluded.

Photo: Wening/Kemendes PDT 
Text: Ria/Kemendes PDT