TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The vice-presidential candidate Sandiaga Uno wants the Islamic boarding schools (Pesantren) in Madura to encourage food self-sufficiency in the region.

“The central issue is to carry out activities and policies so that the economy in Madura will be better. In collaboration with all Islamic boarding schools in Madura, it can be an approach of the pilot base, it can be self-sufficiency in food and water energy,” he said when met by journalists in Jakarta, on Wednesday, December 13.

Sandiaga said that all this time the Madurese people complained about the difficulty of employment, even though the salt industry was very potential there, but it had not been optimized.

“If the Islamic boarding schools can be self-sufficient in food, this is a very strong signal that the government can also be self-sufficient in food too,” Sandiaga said.

Related to the challenge to gain the votes from the Madurese people, Sandiaga said that he did not see it as a battle, but rather an economic conception in Madura that had extraordinary potential.

Last October, President Joko Widodo or Jokowi promised to increase the number of Vocational Training Center (BLK) in Islamic boarding schools. He hoped the program would be able to increase the expertise of the students. He also hoped that next year the vocational training center could be increased in 1,000 Islamic boarding schools.

ANTARA