The development of Rural Special Economic Zones initiated by the Gorontalo State University is part of the acceleration of development in Eastern Indonesia. This was conveyed by the Expert Staff of the Minister of National Development Planning/Bappenas for Leading Sector Development and Infrastructure, Dr. Velix Vernando Wanggai, S.IP., MPA at the Pro Aspirations Dialogue at Radio Republic of Indonesia Gorontalo on Thursday (4/11).

He explained that the establishment of the Tomini Bay Rural Special Economic Zone was a strategic agenda initiated by figures from Eastern Indonesia to reduce the gap between the western and eastern regions of Indonesia.

“From the point of view of the central government or Bappenas, we see that there is a big strategy that we are pushing. We want to place Tomini Bay in two policy corridors, both policies that have a growth nature so that we see that Tomini Bay has very real economic and strategic potentials so that policy frameworks are needed that foster leading sectors in the Tomini Bay area”.

According to Velix, what is interesting in the context of developing the Tomini Bay Special Economic Zone is the potential with the lowest base, namely villages or rural areas in the context of a growth strategy.

“Bappenas also looks at and places Tomini Bay in the context of the corridor for equitable development. If we look at Tomini Bay on a large scale we can see that there are several districts, areas in the context of the relative size of development indicators that must be touched. In the category of indications of development, there are areas that are still left behind but have a large enough resource that it requires a strategy which we call in the context of national planning a growth-based strategy and the lowest base is the village,” he said.