PT Bank Syariah Indonesia Tbk (BSI) released 30 tons of milkfish export commodities to Korea and Japan. "The milkfish that we export is the product of the BSI fostered village in Meunasah Asan Village, East Aceh," said BSI President Director Hery Gunardi in Banda Aceh, Tuesday. The statement was made on the sidelines of releasing milkfish exports from BSI assisted villages and laying the first stone for the construction of the Aceh Region BSI Building in Banda Aceh. He explained that BSI together with BSI Maslahat helped improve the community's economy through mentoring for milkfish farmers carried out in East Aceh as a form of contribution to improving the community's economy. According to him, village empowerment and development is one of BSI's focuses in order to encourage the assisted villages to advance to class, both in terms of productivity and socio-economic community. BSI is working on the Meunasah Asan Village of East Aceh as an Indonesian Prosperous Empowered Village to go global. He said the yield of milkfish ponds covering an area of 200 hectares in Meunasah Asan Village reached 60 tons and was able to penetrate the export market to South Korea and Japan. He said that with the program assistance with BSI, the production period is targeted to be 3 times a year from only 1 time a year. "BSI will act as a mentoring partner, liaison with farmers' standby buyers so that the price of the harvest can match the market price and the assisted villages can continue to progress and be independent," he said. BSI hopes that through this program it can improve the standard of living of milkfish farmers in Meunasah Asan Village. “Our CSR program will focus on sustainable village development through a green project pattern, namely green energy, green environment and sustainability. One of them is the project of the fostered village in East Aceh,” said Hery.

BSI Together with BSI Maslahat implemented three main programs in mentoring, namely mentoring and increasing productivity of milkfish pond fisheries clusters. Then the installation of solar panels in the pond area to drive the pond mill machine so that the amount of milkfish production in the future can increase better while maintaining sustainability through the use of renewable energy from sunlight into electricity. As for the third, BSI provided 10 thousand mangrove trees to be planted in the coastal area of Meunasah Asan Village, which serves to reduce carbon emissions as well as disaster prevention. Especially for the fisheries cluster, BSI focuses on increasing the income of the community, where initially fish farmers only had harvest income 1 time/year to 3-4 times/year. According to him, the increase in income can increase the standard of living of the beneficiaries from mustahik to muzakki. In addition to Meunasah Asan Village, East Aceh, BSI currently has a BSI Village program that has spread across 12 provinces, 22 regencies, and 24 villages throughout Indonesia, with beneficiaries of more than 1,600 families. He detailed that there are various business clusters managed by the community from the assisted village programs such as agriculture, sheep and goat farming, fisheries, cattle breeding, agriculture, coffee, to ecotourism. He hopes that the BSI Village program can cover all provinces, districts and villages throughout Indonesia, because strengthening the community's economy is one of the goals of the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs).

Source: https://www.antaranews.com/berita/3102709/bsi-lepas-ekspor-perdana-30-ton-ikan-bandeng-di-banda-aceh