INDUSTRY.co.id - Lamongan - Pondok Pesantren plays an important role in the effort to realize the independence of national industry. This strategic step is done through the Santripreneur program, which is based on Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Joint Operation, and Capacity Building with the cooperation of several industrial and banking companies.

Therefore, the Ministry of Industry create aggressively new entrepreneurs in the boarding school environment through the program Santripreneur. This effort is intended to make the graduates of pesantren pondok later able to encourage the growth of small and medium industries (IKM).

"During this time, every year we have implemented various community economic empowerment programs, especially on the development of SMEs in religious education institutions including boarding schools," said Director General IKM Kemenperin, Gati Wibawaningsih while doing a working visit at Pondok Pesantren Sunan Drajat, Lamongan, East Java, on Monday (7/8/2017).

She added that during the year 2013-2015, Directorate General of IKM has built five boarding schools in four areas, namely Kebumen District, Central Java, Kab. Garut, West Java, Kab. Tasikmalaya, West Java and Kab. Pacitan, East Java. "The total number of participants who attended as many as 105 santri to get training and skills improvement in the field of convection and agate crafts," she explained.

Gati conveyed, Pondok Pesantren Sunan Drajat is one of the pilot project location conducted by Kemenperin in running the program of Santripreneur in 2017. "We believe this program can support the distribution of national economy, because the number of pesantren in Indonesia is very much," she said.

Based on data from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, in 2014, existing Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia as many as 27,290 institutions with the number of students reached 3.65 million people. Meanwhile, the number of students in Pondok Pesantren Sunan Drajat as many as 12 thousand people (5,500 men and 6,500 girls) with educators 1,041 people.

Gati also explained, it will educate and build about 10 selected santri people to attend training and mentoring in the field of fish processing. In addition, the Directorate General of IKM will facilitate the provision of machinery and equipment assistance that will be submitted to the boarding school through a grant mechanism to the Department of Industry and Trade Kab. Lamongan.

"We are also exploring cooperation with Bank Indonesia in East Java, which will be poured into the Cooperation Agreement related to the scheme of Santripreneur pilot project in 2017," she said.

According to Gati, Bank Indonesia East Java region has a Business Incubator program Pesantren and committed to form Baitul Mal Wattamwil (BMT). "We hope that Bank Indonesia will also be able to provide facilitation of market trial in Islamic Sharia Economic Festival 2017 which will be held in Surabaya in November," she added.

Furthermore, according to Gati, his side will conduct monitoring and evaluation process on the implementation of the pilot project Santripreneur 2017. "If the program is successful, it can be duplicated to other pesantren huts," she concluded.