Massive migration of rural residents to towns expected in Indonesia

The migration of rural residents to the big towns in the Republic of Indonesia after the Aidilfitri celebration is expected to involve about a million people, said its Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar.

They are expected to head to places like in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Semarang, Medan and Batam to look for jobs.

In view of this, he said, several measures had been taken by the Indonesian government to ensure the urbanisation of the rural residents would not create social problems and increase the unemployment rate in the town areas.

"We continue to push for regional autonomy so that it can be one of the solutions to address this urbanisation problem. Regional autonomy should be capable of developing growth centres and enhance development in villages and the smaller towns so that the people do not have to go to the big towns," he added.

The ministry, he said, had also requested the state governments to plan programmes that could create employment opportunities for local residents.