Jakarta, Sept. 5 -- Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment Abdul Muhaimin Iskandar said poverty alleviation requires an integrated ecosystem linking social protection, empowerment, job creation, and business opportunities.

"Social assistance is merely a temporary cushion and social security is just a safety net. The real priority is community self-reliance," he said in a statement on Friday.

Speaking at a regional coordination meeting on poverty alleviation and eliminating extreme poverty in Surakarta, Central Java, on Friday (Sept 4), he stressed the government must actively shift its policy focus from social protection to community empowerment.

Achieving the goal, he added, requires more than just government acti...