The progress of Gorontalo Province has expanded overseas along with the presence of Acting Gorontalo Governor Hamka Hendra Noer. The Malaysian National University S3 alumnus uses a network of friends in the neighboring country to explore cooperation and investment for the region
The presence of the Attorney General for Hamka in Malaysia is not half-hearted. He was received by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Tuan Haji Mohamad Sabu in the city of Putrajaya, the seat of the Malaysian government, Wednesday (11/1/2023). Hamka wants this neighboring country to look at Gorontalo's potential, especially in the fields of agriculture, maritime affairs and fisheries as well as tourism.
According to Hamka, the potential for Gorontalo corn to become one of the important sectors that deserves cooperation. Malaysia is known as one of the countries with a high consumption of eggs and chicken, around 30 percent every year.
"So from the results of the meeting earlier we received an explanation that so far Malaysia's demand for maize has been imported more from Brazil, Argentina and Ukraine. This is an opportunity for Gorontalo because we are closer and of course the price is relatively cheaper," said Hamka when contacted by telephone.
This meeting became even more serious when the Malaysian Minister of Agriculture and Food Security promised to visit Gorontalo in the near future. The minister, who was newly installed on December 3, 2022 during the government of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, wants to seriously collaborate with Gorontalo.
During his two-day visit to Malaysia, Hamka said he had met many potential investors. Their interest is in many aspects. The Attorney General for Hamka doesn't want to be extravagant, he wants this collaboration to be more concrete and immediately felt by the people of Gorontalo.
“I serve all business meetings, in the sense that we meet. There are investments in the hotel sector, in the fisheries sector and others. But frankly I convey to the Head of the Agriculture Service, we have to focus. One thing first is corn, if this is successful, of course other investments will come by themselves," he explained.
So how do we make this cooperation between countries more concrete? The Governor of Hamka has taken strategic steps. He explained that the cooperation would be carried out on a B to B or business to business basis. You do this by reviving Regional Owned Enterprises (BUMN), which have been dead for years.
"So this BUMD has been dead for a long time. Yesterday in Gorontalo we held a meeting and revived this BUMD. We record the assets again, we restructure the organization. Hopefully this endeavor will be successful," he continued.
