Information on New Normal National Seminar and Integrated Regional Development Planning. (Photo: Special)
Malang, November 12, 2020. The new normal situation due to the pandemic impacts development planning in Indonesia. This health disaster, which has multidimensional effects, has forced the regions to make drastic revisions in their activities and future development planning programs. Budgets have been refocused to address the short and long-term impacts of Covid-19, which of course, will still be carried out in the next few years. This change must be able to be accommodated in regional development planning documents.
Now that Indonesia is entering the New Normal phase, the next task is to plan realistic development targets but still rely on the 2020-2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), the Regional Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMD), and the fulfillment of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Therefore, regions that are the central points of development in the era of regional autonomy are required to plan integrated development plans in which aspects of the completion of the COVID-19 pandemic go hand in hand with the fulfillment of the targets of the three planning documents. Specifically, the SDGs target has become a more difficult task considering that the pandemic has resulted in increasing poverty rates and the controversy over the Job Creation Law which was criticized by civil society movements and academia because it has the potential to ignore environmental sustainability in the region.
Thus, flexibility is needed in the regional development planning system to capture the changes that occur. There needs to be a regional development planning system, for example, a strategic plan whose realistic assumptions can accelerate welfare development in the region. A task that is not easy considering that the area is currently in an abnormal condition due to Covid-19, which cannot be predicted for completion. However, the New Normal era can be a momentum to continue to restore economic and social impacts so that the planning targets contained in the RPJMN, RPJMD and SDGs documents can still be met. Although this challenge is formidable, local governments still need to design an adaptive regional development planning system. Therefore, the synergy between stakeholders, namely the central Government, provincial governments, and the community, is essential to creating development integration. The community's interests are the primary orientation to be realized.
This seminar invited Drs. Bob. R.F Sagala, M.Si, as the Head of the Sub-Directorate of Planning and Evaluation of Regional Development in Java and Bali, and an IP Lecturer at UMM, Iradhat Taqwa Sihidi, MA. The two speakers emphasized refocusing efforts to plan for crises in many areas. In addition, efforts to integrate planning also need to be increased between the regions and the center. So that the plans do not overlap with one another, this activity was attended by more than 300 participants, namely students of Government Science UMM.
