RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - The government is optimistic about eliminating extreme poverty in Indonesia to zero percent by 2026. This effort is bolstered by the government's record of success in lifting 1.36 million people out of the extreme poverty category between March 2024 and September 2025.

This data was revealed during the Evaluation Meeting on the Implementation of Presidential Instruction Number 8 of 2025, chaired by the Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment, Abdul Muhaimin Iskandar. Through integrated government interventions, the extreme poverty rate was reduced from 1.26 percent to 0.78 percent.

This 0.48 percent decrease is equivalent to a reduction in the extreme poverty population from 3.56 million to 2.2 million. "We will synchronize and collaborate on programs focused on social protection and direct social assistance that can be enjoyed and felt by the community, thereby creating new jobs and prioritizing economic empowerment, food security, and energy security," he said.

Various empowerment programs have also shown positive results, including social assistance programs reaching 8.56 million poor families, or 93.6 percent of the total target.

The involvement of 2 million people in labor-intensive programs, access to capital for 2 million MSMEs, and improvements in basic services, with 99.4 percent of sub-districts now having health facilities and more than 82.3 percent of villages having access to basic education.

According to a release received by RRI Voice of Indonesia on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, based on these achievements, the Minister of Creative Economy/Head of the Creative Economy Agency, Teuku Riefky Harsya, also outlined the strategy for strengthening the creative economy, in accordance with the aforementioned Presidential Instruction, specifically in point 24 of the fourth dictum, namely to facilitate the development of creative economic enterprises for the poor and extreme poor.

Therefore, the Ministry of Creative Economy emphasized the commitment and role of the creative economy in community empowerment.

"Efforts to develop the creative economy in Indonesia are based on hexahelix collaboration to create quality jobs for the younger generation, thereby realizing improved public welfare. The expansion of new job opportunities for poverty alleviation has reached 107 percent of the 2025 target as of last August," the Minister stated at the meeting.

The Minister stated that the creation of quality jobs for young workers, such as Gen Z and millennials, is a manifestation of the implementation of President Prabowo Subianto's third Asta Cita. Furthermore, the total youth workforce under the age of 42 has reached 57.2 percent.