Asahan Regency in North Sumatra Province, the UGM Faculty of Agriculture (Agriculture UGM), and the Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappeda) of Asahan Regency held a focus group discussion (FGD) to present the Technocratic Document for the Asahan Regency Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMD) 2025-2029.
The FGD on the RPJMD of Asahan Regency was opened by the Regent of Asahan, Surya, at the UGM University Club on Thursday (Jun. 6).
Regent Surya stated that the Technocratic RPJMD is a strategic document because it serves as the fundamental reference and raw material for the elected regent and deputy regent in drafting the 2025-2029 RPJMD.
Many strategic issues must be addressed to ensure that regional development planning remains relevant and contextual with the dynamics of change on both national and global scales.
“I appreciate the support from the Agriculture UGM team, which has coordinated the expert team at UGM to prepare the Technocratic RPJMD for Asahan Regency 2025-2029,” said the regent.
The Dean of Agriculture UGM, Dr. Jaka Widada, expressed the same appreciation. He thanked the Asahan Regency Government for entrusting the collaboration to draft the development planning document.
“The facilitation of this development planning document preparation is a form of community service and expertise utilization based on the resources possessed by the university,” he explained.
Around 80 participants attended the workshop, including the regent, 11 heads of regional apparatus organizations (OPD), four heads of sections from the regional secretariat, program sub-section heads, and staff from various OPDs within the Asahan Regency Government.
Two discussion sessions delved into various problems and prospective strategies for regional development in the Asahan Regency.
The head of the drafting team, Professor Subejo, broadly outlined two main problems in Asahan Regency’s development based on evaluating the previous RPJPD and RPJMD periods. He highlighted that attention must be paid to poverty and open unemployment rates.
The poverty rate has decreased from 11.42 percent to 8.64 percent over the last five years. This figure is lower than the national average of 9.57 percent, although the number of poor residents remains significant at 64,000.
“The open unemployment rate in Asahan Regency has slightly decreased from 6.43 percent to 6.26 percent over the last five years. However, this achievement is still lower than the national average open unemployment rate of 5.86 percent,” explained Professor Subejo.
Furthermore, UGM expert team members Professor Suadi, Pratiwi, and Awaludin Laode emphasized the urgency of breakthroughs and appropriate strategies to drive regional investment growth to stimulate the primary agro-sector, which still contributes more than 30 percent of the GRDP. This is expected to drive the processing industry, trade, and services.
As the largest palm oil-producing regency in North Sumatra, Asahan Regency remains very open to product diversification and downstream. If palm oil products can be developed beyond CPO to various other end products, job opportunities will significantly increase, with great potential to boost the regional economy.
Human resources are one of the most critical keys to the future success of regional development in Asahan Regency. High-quality human resources will create a creative and productive workforce, thereby increasing regional productivity and competitiveness.
“The improvement of human resource quality must be supported by enhanced education services, food and nutrition availability and sufficiency, healthcare services, and better social services,” elaborated Professor Suadi.
The Technocratic RPJMD provides policy direction for social, economic, and governance transformation, legal supremacy, stability and leadership, and social, cultural, and ecological resilience.
Author: Agung Nugroho