GOVT TO USE CSR FUNDS FOR VILLAGE RECONSTRUCTION

Jakarta, Jan 20 (ANTARA) - The government, in cooperation with the Corporate Forum for Community Development (CFCD), will use state owned and private companies' CSR (Corporate Social Responsiblity) funds to implement a village reconstruction program.
"The program will be conducted in the form of pilot projects at subdistrict level," Public Housing Minister M Yusuf Asyari said here Tuesday.
According to the minister, the program would be coordinated with the Social Services' office and the government would adopt certain policies to make it easier for CFCD to do its job in the program.
Meanwhile, director general of social employment at the Social Services Ministry, Gunawan Sumodiningrat, said all subdistricts would be covered by the program. Therefore, he said, the government would soon form a management board in every project area.
He said Jakarta would be the first area where a village reconstruction pilot project would be initiated with other areas getting a turn later.
CFCD's secretary general, Iskandar Sembiring, said one of CSR's main goals was to meet the MDG target of alleviating poverty by 50 percent by 2015. Meanwhile, he added, some companies had already reduced poverty among their employees by up to 75 percent.
Therefore, Iskandar added, CFCD had recently initiated a house ownership program for employees of national companies with funds collected under the CSR scheme and with a government subsidy..