Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Carries Out Work Visit to Nambangan Perak Surabaya Fishers Village

Surabaya, September 20, 2022 - The Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs of Indonesia, Teten Masduki, paid a working visit to Surabaya. One of the agendas was to pay a visit to the Enam Empat Marine Services Cooperative (Fishers Cooperative) located at Nambangan Perak Street No.51A Surabaya, Wednesday (14/09/2022).

In this activity, Teten Masduki was accompanied by Ahmad Zabadi, Deputy of Cooperatives, and several officials from the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs. The Executive General Manager of Pertamina Patra Niaga for the Jatimbalinus region, Deny Djukardi; Director of Small & Medium Business of BRI, Amam Sukriyanto; and Head of Small and Medium Business-Cooperative Service of East Java Province, Andromeda Qomariah were also present on this activity.

During the visit, Teten Masduki held a dialogue with fishers aiming to encourage the institutional strengthening of fishers cooperatives to improve fishers' lives to be more prosperous. One of them is through the Fishers' SOLUSI program, which stands for Solar for Fishers' Cooperatives through the plan to build Fishers' Public Fuel Filling Stations (SPBUN) in collaboration with Pertamina Patra Niaga Jatimbalinus region. It will later be be managed by the Enam Empat Maritime Fishermen Cooperatives in the area. It follows the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo's, direction to improve the fishers' welfare by strengthening cooperatives in the fisheries sector.

"We from the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs with BRI and Pertamina, as well as the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP), will work together to support the plan to build SPBUN with this type of diesel fuel in this area with joint supervision. Thus, the diesel fuel allocation for fishers is right on target," said Teten. "The Solar purchase will use a barcode system and must be registered as a member of the Cooperative," he added.

Meanwhile, the Executive General Manager of Pertamina Patra Niaga Jatimbalinus, Deny Djukardi, welcomed the efforts to improve fishers' welfare through the SPBUN development plan to be carried out by the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs in the Nambangan Perak Fishers Village. Deny emphasized that Pertamina will coordinate with channeling institutions such as SPBUN so that the fuel distribution, especially diesel fuel for fishers, could be fulfilled according to its designation.

"We from Pertamina are ready to work with other parties to support smooth fuel distribution to fishers. One of which is through the plan to build a SPBUN in Nambangan Perak village and will cooperate with the Enam Empat Maritime Cooperative," said Deny.

"Hopefully, with this program, fishers' fuel needs can be fulfilled so that their welfare can increase," concluded Deny.**