[LIVE STREAMING] SIDE EVENT: BINCANG KEPALA DAERAH PKS

Summary

The PKS TV segment features interviews with four regional leaders about local development priorities, economic opportunities, and challenges. Across the interviews, the leaders emphasize infrastructure, job creation, investment, and efforts to ensure local economic growth benefits residents.

Karimun Regency — Iskandar Syah

Karimun’s location near Singapore and Malaysia, at the Strait of Malacca, is presented as a major strategic advantage. Regent Iskandar Syah argues that Indonesia captures too little of the trade and shipping activity passing through the strait. He proposes developing Karimun into a logistics and industrial hub while also pursuing maritime trade and industry.

He says Karimun’s Free Trade Zone status, granted in 2007, has not yet reached its potential because port facilities and electricity supply need improvement. He is seeking central-government support for those upgrades, as well as clearer business regulations and stronger authority for the Karimun business agency so it can facilitate investment more quickly.

The regent cites about Rp21 trillion in investment reported for 2025 and describes larger prospective projects, including oil storage and energy-related facilities. He also points to a rise in the local workforce from roughly 16,000 to 22,000 and argues that further industrial development could create many more jobs. He frames investment in Karimun as both an economic opportunity and a way to strengthen Indonesia’s border region and energy security.

Purbalingga Regency — Fahmi Muhammad Hanif

Regent Fahmi Muhammad Hanif describes Purbalingga as a Central Java district with a population of around one million and a varied economic base. He highlights false-eyelash exports, exhaust manufacturing, tourism, and commodities such as coconut sugar, coffee, and other agricultural products.

Infrastructure is a leading priority. Fahmi says the district’s infrastructure budget rose from Rp12 billion to Rp122 billion in 2025 after funding was secured from district, provincial, and central sources. To address employment, the government is connecting job seekers with employers, seeking investment, and promoting digital-marketing businesses that can sell beyond the local market.

He also describes the Purbalingga Gotong Royong initiative, which combines public and private support for low-income residents. Assistance includes basic necessities, home repairs, clean-water wells, school shoes, and support for selected small businesses. Fahmi says the program has assembled about Rp15 billion and aims to reach Rp20–25 billion annually. He stresses that productive assistance should be carefully assessed and matched to recipients’ actual needs, rather than distributed simply to complete a program.

He identifies limited budgets and Purbalingga’s location away from major toll-road corridors as obstacles to investment. The interview cites a high share of residents in the lowest income decile, underscoring the scale of the poverty challenge.

West Lombok Regency — Nurul Adha

Deputy Regent Nurul Adha, who is carrying out the regent’s duties and authorities, says West Lombok has significant tourism and agricultural potential but continuing development needs. She cites poverty of 11.6%, economic growth of 5.74%, an HDI of 74.29, and open unemployment of 2.92%.

Her tourism priorities include reviving Senggigi and developing Sekotong, whose beaches and small islands she says remain underdeveloped. Measures to bring visitors back to Senggigi include regular events, a festival, collaboration with hotels and event organizers, and improvements to the waterfront. She reports that a new pier has helped increase boat services from three to 14 round trips a day and says local revenue from ticket-related levies has doubled. The government is also organizing vendor areas, improving public spaces, and providing job training so residents can benefit from tourism.

Adha says the region is promoting agricultural products such as rice, horticulture, mangosteen, durian, and coffee, while mapping villages’ different strengths and needs. She also emphasizes coordinating government agencies to better target poverty-reduction and economic-empowerment programs. She describes efforts to keep tourism compatible with local religious and cultural values, including restrictions on alcohol sales to designated hotel or resort settings and support for halal tourism.

Pringsewu Regency — Rianto Pamungkas

Regent Rianto Pamungkas says he entered politics from business and was elected in his first regional election. He describes Pringsewu as a small, inland district with limited natural-resource advantages, but relatively strong education and health services and an HDI of 74.76. He also notes budget constraints, including reported efficiency savings of Rp39.4 billion in 2025 and reduced central transfers.

A major initiative is downstream processing of cassava into mocaf, a locally made flour that can be used in some foods and is promoted as gluten-free. The project uses village-level processing clusters, with a pilot operating in three villages. One unit is reported to process about two tonnes daily and employ 15–20 people. The regent says the aim is to add value locally and distribute income to rural workers. He also describes plans for “corporate farming” in rice production, consolidating land and organizing farmers through a cooperative structure.

Pamungkas says about half of Pringsewu residents depend on agriculture. The mocaf project faces a marketing challenge because the product is not yet widely known, so the district is pursuing both industrial customers and health-food retail markets. Other priorities include road and street-light improvements, a proposed public-private partnership for infrastructure, and plans to improve the appearance of the district capital. He says the local government has proposed the mocaf initiative for consideration as a National Strategic Project.

Presenters and Contributors

• PKS TV presenter/interviewer — name not stated in the subtitles
• Ir. H. Iskandar Syah — Regent of Karimun
• Fahmi Muhammad Hanif — Regent of Purbalingga
• Nurul Adha — Deputy Regent of West Lombok, carrying out the regent’s duties and authorities
• Rianto Pamungkas — Regent of Pringsewu