Smart Villages Transform Rural Lives

KOMPAS/VINA OKTAVIA

Mujiono (47), a resident of Tiyuh Pulung Kencana, Tulang Bawang Tengah District, West Tulang Bawang Regency, tried an independent electronic service at the Balai Tiyuh office, Monday (13/3/2023).

The smart village program using digital technology that was developed by a village administration has brought about change to rural communities in Lampung. Finding information and getting services in the village are now as easy as finger snaps on the monitor screen.

Agus F. Pratama (24), who is a village official at Tiyuh Pulung Kencana in Central Tulang Bawang district, West Tulang Bawang regency, Lampung, was busy looking at a display monitor on Monday morning (13/3/2023). He was checking a list of documents several residents had submitted through the village administration’s website, pulungkencana.desa.id.

Around 5 minutes later, he finished printing several documents for the village head to sign. Their owners would only need to come to the village office to collect them.

Before the implementation of the digital administrative system, the village’s residents had to form queues as village officials processed their documents manually, entering data and other personal information from identification cards. The manual job was not only time-consuming, but also prone to errors.

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Mujiono (47), a resident of neighborhood unit (RT) 007 in Tiyuh Pulung Kencana, said he once spent an entire day waiting at the village office to process his application and to receive village head’s signature and stamp.

Village head Hendarwan said the digital administrative system, which was first launched in 2019, currently stored data on 9,330 villagers. The data covered their gender, education, occupation, medical history and blood type. It also regularly updated the information on government assistance for eligible residents.

The digital system also enables access to the village map with real-time information on the residents’ houses, including detailed specifications on their condition, size, yard and land, which were partly helped with the use of Google Earth, as well as information on vehicle registration and livestock ownership.

In addition to easier access to public services, the smart village program also aims to provide transparency in the village funds allocation. On the website, residents can monitor use of the budget and follow progress in the village’s development in areas such as infrastructure and community empowerment.

KOMPAS/VINA OKTAVIA

An official from the Village-Owned Enterprise (BUMDes) in Kampung Bandar Agung, Terusan Nunyai District, Central Lampung Regency, Lampung, serving residents who wish to pay motor vehicle taxes through the village samsat electronic service or e-Samdes, on Tuesday (14/3/2023) . Currently, there are 477 BUMDes that are e-Samdes agents.

Flood mitigation

At Bandar in Terusan Nunyai district, Central Lampung regency, village head Agung Sutopo said adopting the digital system had contributed significantly to mitigation efforts following the recent floods on 9 March that affected 54 villagers.

He said his staff was able to more quickly look up the victims’ data in the digital records, especially family identification cards, for speedy distribution of aid packages.

Zaidirina, who heads Lampung province’s community, village and transmigration empowerment agency, said the digital smart village program had commenced with pilot projects in 130 villages before thousands of villages followed suit on their own initiative by using the village funds.

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The program now has reportedly integrated as many as 1,792 villages, or 73.2 percent of the 2,446 total villages in the province.

Hailed as an access point to various rural outreach initiatives, the smart village program has enabled integrated public service through the implementation of e-Samdes, e-Voting and e-Penting applications.

The e-Samdes is a village-level electronic vehicle registration service, which, according to Zaidirina, currently involves 477 village-owned businesses (BUMDes) as agents. This allows villagers to pay their vehicle taxes online.

Several villages have also adopted the e-Voting application for the village head elections and e-Penting, a stunting reduction program. Local micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are also encouraged to use their village’s websites to market their products.

Several villages have also adopted the e-Voting application for the village head elections and e-Penting, a stunting reduction program.

Lampung Governor Arinal Djunaidi said the digital smart village program was one of the provincial administration’s breakthroughs to invigorate rural economic growth towards advancing the people of Lampung in line with the province’s development vision.

The rural digital ecosystem has been proven to cut bureaucracy, encourage transparency, and drive the rural economy. All this may be a beautiful gift for Lampung, which celebrates its 59^th anniversary on 18 March.

Happy Anniversary!

This article was translated by Musthofid.